More Than Words
by dusk-pixie
Summary: Continuation of Finding More. Warning: NaruSasu, lemon, yaoi, mature, ah/au. Rated: MA
1. Chapter 1

**More than Words**  
[a sequel to Finding More]

Warning: **Lime**, NaruSasu pairing, AU/AH, slash, yaoi, romance, mature, hurt/comfort

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Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the characters; they belong to the brilliant Kishimoto.

Chapter One

Sasuke hit the button locking his car, and trudged up the driveway. He couldn't wait to get inside and dump his bag, the heavy university textbooks pulling at his shoulders. The door was already unlocked and the kitchen light had been left on so that he wouldn't come home to a dark house. Though there was a note on the table indicating that there were leftovers in the fridge, but decided to go upstairs having already eaten on campus earlier that evening.

Flicking off the kitchen light, he heaved his bag up onto his shoulder and climbed the staircase as quietly as he could. He lightly placed his bag on the ground in the hallway before entering and he could see that the en suite light had been left on to cast a dim glow across the room. The glowing red numerals on the bedside clock informing him that it was almost 11:45pm on a Wednesday night. He started to undress, listening to the steady, deep breathing of his boyfriend of three years, Naruto.

After pulling on a pair of boxer shorts, he crossed the room quietly and crawled into bed, feeling Naruto stir beside him.

"Sas'ke? 'Sat you?" Naruto mumbled sleepily. He rolled over, sighing happily as he slung his arm across Sasuke's stomach. He'd always loved cuddling up to whomever he was sleeping with, and since he'd been sleeping beside Sasuke for practically all of these last three years, it now didn't feel right without him there.

Sasuke rolled his eyes in the dim light of the room. "Of course it's me, you dork. Who else would be crawling into bed beside you? Or do you have something to tell me?" Naruto gave a low chuckle before responding.

"No, you know I have no secrets from you. One sexy guy in my bed is plenty. Speaking of which, why are you crawling into bed so late?" He glanced over at the clock. "It's almost midnight. Surely your classes don't run that long?"

Sasuke sighed, relaxing back into the plush pillows behind him. "Even though we are third years, some girl fainted in our anatomy class when the lecturer was showing us the proper way to make the Y-incision in the body. She hit her head pretty hard on the corner of the lab table as she fell, and by the time the EMT arrived and took her to the hospital we ended up running an hour behind. This meant we all had to come back after hours to complete the lab, plus I had to finish an assignment for my law class…"

"Long day," Naruto commented.

"And your day? Do anything new?" Sasuke questioned, and was surprised to feel Naruto tense momentarily. "Hey…what's up?"

"Nothing, particularly. There was a lot of paperwork today. You know, I think Shizu is punishing me for last month," he said, sulkily. "All I have been doing is paperwork…I've only been in

"You _did_ get drunk at Shika's party. And sprayed her car with whipped cream. On the _inside_. And I know for a fact that she has custom made leather upholstery." Sasuke could barely keep the grin out of his voice. It had been truly hilarious. After drinking more than was probably a good idea and excusing himself to go to the bathroom, Naruto had cheerfully stumbled out of the room. It was twenty minutes before any of them truly started to wonder where he had disappeared to.

After searching the house, Chouji had noticed that the front door was open and when they went outside, they could all hear Naruto laughing his ass off, like there was some huge joke. When the eventually wandered along row of cars parked in front of the house, he found him sitting in Shizune's car (no one had yet worked out how he managed to get in without stealing her keys) firing the whipped cream in patterns across the seats and windows. Shizune had been so pissed off that she couldn't speak, so Sasuke had bundled Naruto into his car forcefully and driven him home to give Shizune some time to cool off.

"Yeah…well…that was like a month ago…she needs to move on," Naruto said grumpily, before lapsing into silence.

"So do you want to tell me what's really bothering you, or are you just going to keep delaying?" Sasuke eventually asked.

"Kurenai called again."

Ah. That explained a lot. About nine months after he moved in with Naruto, they had changed and privatised the home phone number in an attempt to stop Naruto's biological father from contacting him through his lawyer, Kurenai. The calls had stopped, but she had rediscovered their number about recently and was _very_ persistent in her attempts to initiate contact. Sasuke sighed.

"Maybe you just have to consider taking the call, meeting your father? I know you don't want to, but once you've done it he has no reason to continue contacting you…plus it's been like, what, four years now since he started trying to get in touch with you?" He felt Naruto shuffle away from him so that they were no longer touching.

"I've already told you, I have no interest in him," Naruto stubbornly replied. Sasuke groaned internally. Now it was clear Naruto was going to sulk, but Sasuke was used to this particular mood swing; whenever his father got brought up, Naruto got stubborn.

Smiling to himself, Sasuke slid closer to the blonde. Lying on his side, one hand on Naruto's chest. "Are you angry at me, Naru?" There was no reply, and Sasuke began to trace his finger tip over Naruto's chest. "Or maybe not so much angry with me, as frustrated with him?" Again, no response. "Well, _I'm_ frustrated too, just…not over him, and not that type of frustrated." He trailed his hand down across Naruto's stomach until he reached the top of the Calvin Klein pyjama pants he knew Naruto preferred.

There was a sharp intake of breath as he slid his hands beneath the material, his hand lightly stroking Naruto's half-hard erection underneath the fabric. Naruto shivered and gooseflesh was raised across his chest. Sasuke continued with an even rhythm, leaning over to whisper into Naruto's ear, "Hmm, maybe you weren't frustrated over him either?"

Slipping the sheet down, followed by tugging down Naruto's pants, Sasuke moved to sit between Naruto's thighs. Naruto's cock was thick, long and at the moment, incredibly hard. Laying his head on Naruto's thigh, he moved his hand up and down leisurely. When Naruto's breath started to come a little harder and faster, Sasuke moved to take Naruto's cock into his mouth, enjoying the flashes of ecstasy on Naruto's face. He traced the tip with his tongue, gently probing the slit before sucking it deep into his throat. The gasp that this drew from Naruto made it worthwhile.

Soon, Sasuke could feel Naruto beginning to tense, getting closer to the brink. Just as the sensations were close to overwhelming Naruto, Sasuke abruptly stopped, squeezing Naruto's cock tightly and preventing his release.

"W-why'd…you stop…me?" Naruto managed to ask between pants, eyes unfocused. Sasuke grinned up at him in the dark.

"Because, if you recall, I have my _own_ frustration," he said, crawling up until he was sprawled across Naruto. He leant down and traced Naruto's ear with his tongue, enjoying the shudder it coaxed from his boyfriend, before moving on to his soft lips. Naruto's cock was trapped painfully between their bodies and he couldn't decide if he was in heaven or hell as Sasuke ground his own clothed erection against his leg.

When Sasuke moved off of him and began to remove his shorts, he looked over his shoulder and whispered sexily, "Lube?" Naruto turned rapidly to dig through the drawer of his bedside table to find the ever present bottle of lubricant, emerging triumphantly. Sasuke held out his hand expectantly, and Naruto passed it to him. As Naruto reclined against the pillows, his raven haired partner straddled his hips.

Sasuke, knees on either side of Naruto digging into the bed, lent forward to steal another kiss before leaking the slippery, strawberry flavoured lubricant onto his fingers. Reaching behind, he gently pushed one slick finger past the crinkled ring of flesh. Biting his bottom lip, he immediately added a second. Looking down into Naruto's smouldering eyes, he began to languidly finger himself, the small moans increasing when Naruto reached forward to fondle his bobbing cock.

Finally, when neither could bear it any longer, Sasuke slicked Naruto's rod with the liquid before guiding it to his entrance and lowering himself down inch by inch, until he was completely filled. Once the moment of feeling intolerably full had passed, Sasuke raised himself and began slam himself down, with Naruto thrusting up to meet him while stroking his cock.

"Ahhh…ah…nn…h-harder Naruto…" moaned the raven haired man, skin glowing in the dim light.

Naruto redoubled his efforts, matching Sasuke for passion. When once again he was about to peak, he stared up at Sasuke and whispered, "…love you." Hearing the words, Sasuke clenched tighter around him and suddenly they were both beyond words as sensation swept them away as they came together.

When he had enough energy to make the effort, Sasuke rolled off of Naruto, grimacing slightly as Naruto's flaccid member left him. Curling against Naruto under the sheet, head resting on his chest, Sasuke murmured, "I know I don't say it often…but I love you, too."

"I know," replied Naruto simply, before they both fell into deep, contented dreams

x-x-x-x-x

In the morning, Sasuke awoke aching in a familiar way, smiling when he remembered the cause. After washing his face, donning some tracksuit pants and a navy blue singlet, he ambled downstairs half asleep to find Naruto at the table eating breakfast. After a loud yawn, he flumped into the chair opposite and rested his head against the table.

"G'morning, sleepy," said Naruto, cheerfully grinning as he bit into a piece of toast slathered with marmalade.

"Gah…you're such a morning person. What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asked, considering whether he was awake enough to get some coffee. A second later there was a clunk as Naruto set a steaming mug beside him. He held it up to his lips, savouring the strong, biting smell. After a small sip, he spoke. "Working today?"

"Yeah…I got Friday off remember? Coz we're going to Sakura's Halloween party," he grinned and Sasuke's heart sunk. He'd forgotten about that, and this year it was Naruto's turn to choose both of their costumes.

"Naruto," he said, with a note of warning in his voice. "You better not be planning on making me wear anything indecent this year, because I swear…you will not survive my wrath."

"I won't," Naruto objected. "Plus, you can't talk…you dressed me as a fox last year…and I don't hesitate to remind you that I even wore the leash. So no complaining." Sasuke had to concede defeat. Last year, he'd made Naruto go the whole nine yards…bushy tail, fuzzy ears, animal paw gloves and a cute little nose and whisker mask. They had gone to the party with Sasuke claiming Naruto as a tamed fox, a leash and collar a last minute addition he'd made to Naruto's ensemble. Ah, good memories.

The phone chose that moment to ring, causing a sudden lapse in conversation between the two men. Sasuke's eyes flicked to the phone on the table, checking the caller ID. "It's not Kurenai's number; actually, it's not any number that I recognise. I'll answer; it might be important." He hit the little green answer button. "Hello, Uchiha and Uzumaki residence, Sasuke speaking."

"Hello," said a deep, male voice. "Is Naruto there, please?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, he just left for work," Sasuke lied, eyes flicking to Naruto. "May I ask whose calling and take down a message?"

"This is Minato Namikaze," the voice replied.

"M-Minato?" Sasuke asked, frozen in place by Naruto's expression, before regaining his composure. "I'm warning you now; he doesn't want anything to do with you. I recommend you stop trying to contact him and leave him in peace."

Minato chuckled. "Oh, _you're_ the little orphan that's been leeching off of my son for the last few years, right? What say do you have in whether I-"

Sasuke went white with fury, and promptly threw the cordless phone at the wall, taking supreme pleasure in watching the outer casing of the handset shatter. Naruto looked at him questioningly, eyebrows raised. It was rare for Sasuke to lose his temper, and Sasuke was clearly seething.

"You were right," he snapped. "Don't talk to the asshole; you're much too good for him." He began to pace and rant. "I'm an orphan leech that's staying with his son? I would never take advantage of you, and he _dared_ to say you were his son? He's had less contact with you than I have in my 'last few years' of leeching…" He trailed off when he saw the thunderous expression on Naruto's face.

"He said that? For real?" He balled his fists, looking at the floor. "Sasuke…I'm…beyond sorry-"

"Don't you apologise for him!" Sasuke interrupted, crossing the room to put his hands on Naruto's shoulders, forcing him to meet his eyes. "This is not your fault. Why don't you go finish getting ready for work, and I will go back to bed. Go to work, and forget about it. Plus…you need to bring home the bacon so I can go buy a new phone since I, uh, just broke this one."

Suddenly, Naruto smiled. "I have to say, it's worth the money – I think it's sexy when you're mad." Watching the blush rise in Sasuke's face made his grin widen. Leaning down, he gave Sasuke a thorough kiss. "Thanks for calming me, even though I'm mad I think…there's nothing I can do to fix it at the moment. By the way, I love it when you blush for me."

Sasuke huffed and puffed about the blushing comment, but was glad to see that they could both be clear, reasonable beings after the little outburst before. Not that they would get over this any time soon, but it was clear to both that they would deal with it later.

x-x-x-x-x

A/N: Hey everyone (^_^)

So after good feedback on the idea of a continuation of my NaruSasu fic Finding More, I decided to start More Than Words. Some of you may wonder why I have created a whole separate story for the continuation, but it was mostly because the characters and their issues have matured, and I felt that adding Finding More just wouldn't suit.

I really, really hope you like More Than Words, and that it meets your expectations following Finding More.

Happy reading!  
~dusk. xo


	2. Chapter 2

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More.

**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu

**Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer**: The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make profit from this FanFic.

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Chapter Two

Naruto sat at his desk looking at the epic pile of paperwork Shizune had left for him. This last month had been his idea of hell. Deciding it was break time, he went to visit Shikamaru in his office. Shikamaru clacked away on his computers, multiple monitors around the room showing him what other officers were doing in the CPC (central phone and computer room). Last year, he had been promoted (meaning basically he got higher pay and his own office while doing the same work) after inventing some cutting edge technology that had quickly become a vital part of surveillance operations. Naruto knocked and entered.

"Hey, Shika. You busy?"

"Yep, but that answer never changes. You on break?" Shikamaru asked, barely glancing up from his screen.

"Yeah. More paperwork. Anyway, I have a…favour to ask. The personal kind." Naruto looked uncomfortable.

Shikamaru stopped typing and removed his headset. "Yeah, sure. What do you need?"

"Well, the phone number of Kurenai Yuhi at Fredrickson, Thyme and Wexler Lawyers, for one thing. Also, and I know you may not be able to do this, but…" Naruto took a deep breath. "Can you find out if Minato Namikaze has accessed any of my files? I don't know if you are authorised; he might be too high up in his organisation…"

Shikamaru was surprised, Naruto rarely asked for personal favours and for him to be doing anything related to his father was even more shocking. "Uh, I can look into it. No guarantees though. Like you said, if I'm not authorised…"

"Yeah, that's fine." Naruto glanced about the room, and tried to shift the conversation away from his father. "You going to Sakura's tomorrow?"

"Nah, I couldn't get time off. Chouji's going though. He said he'd take photos of the costumes though." He gave an easygoing smile, secretly thinking of the great shot he's got of Naruto decorating Shizu's car. "Only a few years til the big three-oh…I need to gather the humiliating pictures while I can."

Naruto grinned. Shikamaru _was_ the master of embarrassing collages. Though he had to admit, he made things easy, especially when he was younger and his middle name could have been 'stupid behaviour'. "Well, since you aren't on break, I should let you go back to work. I'm going to go and ask Shizu to give me some _real_ work, instead of paperwork."

Shikamaru blinked. "Are you sure that's a good idea? She was almost ready to shoot you last month and she knows how to hold a grudge."

"I'm sure she'll be over that by now. After all, it was a month ago. See ya, Shika," Naruto said, walking out of the room. Shikamaru merely shook his head, slipped the headset back on and went back to work.

Naruto walked to Shizune's office, rapping the door lightly with his knuckles before poking his head in. Shizune frowned as she looked up from her paperwork and focused on him. He hesitated in the doorway, before shrugging it off and entering.

"Have you finished the paperwork yet?" she asked in a neutral tone.

Well, at lease she wasn't being aggressive, thought Naruto. He paused to collect his thoughts.

He chose his words carefully. "I finished all the paperwork that you gave me before today. I was wondering if you could stop giving me paperwork?"

Shizune sighed. "Sure. I'll assign some of the paperwork to the new recruits, though you will have to finish the Dayton report. Next shift, you can go back on patrol. Talk to Lee, he'll let you know where they need you." She went back to her paperwork and this time it was Naruto's turn to frown. This had been easier than he'd thought. Too easy, in fact. He'd presumed that she would at least mention the whipped cream incident.

"So, just like that? What about your car? Do you want me to cover the damages?" Naruto tried to provoke a response.

Without looking up, Shizune said, "No, no. It's fine. Sasuke already-" She broke off her sentence as she looked up. "Uh, never mind."

"Shizune," Naruto started, forcing her to make eye contact. "What were you going to say about Sasuke?"

She sighed. "I was going to say that you don't need to worry about it, because Sasuke covered the costs of fixing my car."

"You made a deal with him!" Naruto said accusingly. The silence stretched between them and when Shizune opened her mouth to respond, he held up a hand stopping her. He wearily ran a hand through his blonde hair. "I'll talk to Sasuke about it later." Sighing, he left the room and went back to his desk to finish up the Dayton report.

x-x-x-x-x

When Naruto got home that night, he found Sasuke upstairs in his original bedroom, which had been converted into a study area. Sasuke was scribbling down notes as he read a rather large medical textbook. He was bent low over his notes, dark hair hanging across his face. Naruto was almost transfixed by it. Giving himself a shake, he rapped sharply on the door.

Sasuke looked up, smiling when he say his boyfriend in the doorway. His smile faded when he realised that there was no answering smile. Naruto looked at the floor then back to Sasuke before saying, "When you finish studying, I really need to talk to you. I'll be downstairs."

"O-okay. I'll be down soon." Sasuke started to pack up his study materials as Naruto left the room. He had an inkling about what was wrong and was not looking forward to the discussion. When he finally made it downstairs he found Naruto in the living room reading. He sat down on one of the chairs adjacent to Naruto and cleared his throat.

"Sasuke. We've had this discussion before. You can't interfere with my work," Naruto said seriously. "What deal did you make with Shizu?"

Now it was Sasuke's turn to look away. "I, uh, I told her that if she would give you paperwork jobs I would cover the costs of re-upholstering her car."

Naruto groaned. "Sasuke! First of all, you _know_ that my job is important to me. You do this all the time – trying to protect me from danger when it's part of my job." This had been one of the bumps in their relationship. Sasuke's fear of losing another loved one made him worry about Naruto's job on the police force. Though he rarely went to the extent of interfering, there had been a couple of times in which he had persuaded Naruto's co-workers to keep him out of the dangerous situations.

Sasuke nodded. "I…I know I shouldn't have…but the words just kinda came out of my mouth when I was standing looking at her car. All I could think was 'I know that as long as he's on desk duty, he'll definitely be coming home to me'. I'm really sorry." His head was bowed and his cheeks were red.

Naruto sighed patted the space on the couch beside him. Sasuke reluctantly stood and moved to sit by Naruto. Naruto looked at him for a moment, feeling a little frustrated. He completely understood Sasuke's reservations about his job; hell, half the personnel on the force had anxious partners waiting at home, and they'd been through a lot less than Sasuke. Naruto reached up and ruffled Sasuke's hair.

"Look, I'm not mad…but please don't do those things. I already promised you that I would keep my Kevlar vest on hand while I patrol, right?" Sasuke nodded, relieved that they weren't going to argue over it. "So stop worrying so much. Now to the other part of my problem. Why were you paying for the repairs to Shizu's car? I know that the money didn't come from our joint account. You _know_ you're only supposed to use your own money to put yourself through university."

Sasuke's temper flared. "Hey, the money I inherited from Mom and Dad, as well as what I got for selling the house is _my_ money. I can do whatever I want with it. Also, it's not exactly my inheritance any more. I kinda…invested some of it, so I'm making my own money." Naruto's eyebrows went up in surprise; this investing was news to him.

"I'm going to bed," declared Sasuke before Naruto could make a response, vacating the couch and heading upstairs. He wondered if Naruto realised that he wasn't the only protective one in the relationship.

When Naruto came upstairs fifteen minutes later, it was pitch dark. Sasuke had crawled into bed without leaving any lights on for Naruto, and when Naruto slid between the sheets beside him, he rolled away from Naruto without a word.

Naruto was silent for a moment before speaking into the darkness. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. I know you aren't seventeen anymore, that you're not in need of my guidance and help. It's just…I want to do right by you, and I always thought that I would take care of the financial burden while you studied. But you are right, I shouldn't fuss so much…it really is your money. I won't tell you how to use it again, okay?"

There was no response from the lump in the blanket beside him and Naruto felt shattered; they rarely fought and he hated going to sleep on a bad note. There was a hasty kind of shuffling beneath the sheets and Naruto fought a sigh of relief as one of Sasuke's hands slid into his own.

x-x-x-x-x

When Sasuke woke up and realised that Naruto was still in bed with him, instead of on his morning run or at work, it clicked that it was October 31st. Halloween. He didn't like this thought at all, since he wasn't sure what costume would await him.

"Good morning," said Naruto, yawning loudly before rolling to face Sasuke. "Are we okay?"

Sasuke felt a little embarrassed about last night, but tried not to show it. "Yeah, we're fine. I won't interfere with your work if I can help it, and you will relax about money issues a bit." He rolled his eyes. "It's not a big deal, right? You and me…" he trailed off, not wanting to be soppy.

"Are forever," Naruto finished with a grin. Hey, he liked the mushy stuff. "So, looking forward to Sakura's party tonight?"

Damn, how did Naruto always know what he was thinking about? He gave Naruto a look as he got up and headed off to the shower. It was going to be a long day of waiting to find out what hell Naruto was putting him through.

x-x-x-x-x

Sasuke took one look at the clothes laid out on the bed and went to find Naruto in the en suite.

"No."

Naruto looked at Sasuke's disgruntled reflection in the mirror before he continued to shave. "What 'no'?" Sasuke glared at Naruto's reflection.

"I can't wear that!"

"You bet your ass you can," Naruto grinned, pleased as punch at Sasuke's reaction. Sasuke growled before walking back into the room to stare in dismay at his Halloween costume. Priest outfit. That, he thought, was obviously for Naruto. Neatly beside it lay the cause of his dismay. Catholic school girl outfit. Naruto was basically making him cross-dress tonight. He heard a chuckle and spun to find Naruto laughing at him from the doorway.

"I will get you back for this. I will," Sasuke threatened.

Naruto just kept on smiling. "I look forward to it. Come on, we have to be at Sakura's soon."

Naruto changed quickly into the black robes and white collar. Sasuke, on the other hand, was dragging his feet. The crisp white shirt was designed to hide the masculine lines of his body, and the bra underneath gave the illusion of a female chest. It was tucked into a black-and-red pleated skirt that hit mid-thigh, just short enough to border on indecent, though he did manage to sneak on a pair of short shorts before Naruto could stop him. When it came to the white knee highs, he wasn't sure how to fold them so he was forced to sit and glower while Naruto arranged his socks and put on his shoes.

When Naruto came back from the bathroom carrying make-up and a wig with long black hair tied in pigtails, Sasuke finally voiced some of his objections.

"Naruto, surely the women's clothes are enough…" he said as he backed away from Naruto.

Naruto flashed a grin. "I wore the collar and leash, you wear the accessories." Sasuke had no arguments to top that. Next year…there would be vengeance.

When they eventually left the house, Sasuke sported glossy black locks that hung in pigtails to his waist, dark eyes framed by thick, black lashes and lips glossed with a dark red lipstick. Sasuke looked grumpy. Beautiful, but grumpy. Naruto looked like he was in heaven.

When they knocked on Sakura's door, she opened it and her jaw dropped. "How the hell did he get you to wear that, Sasuke?" she asked, open mouthed.

"Last year's costume gave him a bargaining chip," he said, throwing a look of disgust at his grinning idiot of a boyfriend.

"I see… Well, come on through – the rest of the gang's out in the other room," Sakura said, gesturing to the living room. They entered a room covered with fake spider webs, bats, jack-o-lanterns and other spooky stuff.

*Flash. Click. Whir.*

Sasuke swore. Chouji had managed to get a picture of them almost as soon as they walked in. Naruto crossed over and began to chat to his friends. Sasuke spied Gaara and Neji in the corner and left Naruto to talk to them. Since he and Naruto had started dating, the two friend groups had merged. Gaara seemed to be dressed as a mummy, and Neji was looking spectacular as some kind of gypsy.

To no-one's surprise, Gaara and Neji had started dating and living together right after high school ended. Sasuke had had suspicions since they were fifteen so he was fine with the whole thing. Gaara chuckled when he recognised Sasuke. Neji followed suit with a small smile.

"Hey, guys," he said when they were within hearing distance. "I wish I had your costumes."

"I know you do," replied Gaara, smugly. "But you have to admit, your outfit does suit you." Neji nodded. Then they chatted on about the usual stuff. Neji was studying part time to get his business degree, while working as an intern at the Hyuga Corporation where he would someday take over for his uncle. Gaara was studying history at university, focusing on Egyptian history - he secretly loved the pyramids and legends.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke noticed that Naruto was in deep discussion with Chouji, and not looking entirely happy. Excusing himself from the conversation with Gaara and Neji he crossed the room to stand behind Naruto, who was holding a folder. He caught the tail-end of the discussion.

"-able to get from the classified file. He asked that you don't-"

"I won't," interrupted Naruto. He noticed Sasuke, and quickly dropped the folder into the briefcase he'd brought, which then tossed on the floor with his coat. Changing the subject, he flung an arm around Sasuke's shoulders and grinned at Chouji. "How 'bout another quick photo. Smile, Sasuke!" he insisted as Chouji cheerfully obliged.

Suddenly, they heard a high pitched squeal and moments later a small, chubby hand was tugging on Naruto's jacket making 'up' motions. Naruto leaned down delightedly, picking up Hinata and Lee's two and a half year-old girl, Yumi. She planted a big wet kiss on his cheek and looked around with her big, amethyst eyes.

"Uncky Nawu…where Uncky Sasu?" She looked just like her mother, with shiny, shoulder length black hair. In the personality department, she was more like her father – confident, friendly and talkative. She looked adorable dressed in the normal little girls princess costume for Halloween.

"He's right here," Naruto replied, while poking at Sasuke. Yumi stared for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

"He perty pwincess like Yumi!" she exclaimed happily. She extended her arms and leaned towards Sasuke, looking to shift arms. Sasuke took the little girl into his arms with a small smile, accepting one of her wet kisses on the cheek. When she had first been born, he had been terrified around her. What the heck did you do with a small human? What if you broke it? But after plenty of visits and the large amount of babysitting that he and Naruto did for Hinata and Lee, he had quickly realised he didn't mind children. Or at least not this one.

"Yumi, where's mommy or daddy?" Naruto asked as he scanned the room. He spotted Hinata by the kitchen doing the same thing and waved her over.

"Yumi!" she scolded. "Don't just run off without asking daddy and I. We were worried. Oh, hi, by the way, guys." She blushed as she took in Sasuke's appearance. Then Yumi decided it was time for a new set of arms again and reached for Hinata. Hinata grabbed the little girl and carefully detangled Sasuke's wig from the little fist it was tightly clenched in.

"Hi, Hina," said Naruto, Sasuke nodding a greeting. "She escaped again, I take it?"

"Yeah…she'd getting good at it. Yesterday she managed to get out of her crib on her own…so much for baby proof." She looked down at the little girl, and cooed, "And to think your daddy wants another one of you to run around after."

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged looks. They sensed another child on the horizon for Lee and Hinata. After Hinata left, Naruto and Sasuke separated and went to mingle with other people at the party.

Later in the night, Sasuke had his eye on Naruto from across the room, noticing that he was drinking a fair bit. In fact, he was staggering off to the bathroom now. Sasuke's mind flashed to the whipped cream incident and he decided to follow Naruto…just in case. He followed Naruto up the hallway and then moved to wait outside the door while Naruto was in the toilet. Minutes later, Naruto opened the door rather suddenly, recognised Sasuke and yanked him into the little combined bathroom/toilet area and locked the door.

"Oi, dork. What are you doing?" Sasuke demanded, looking in the huge mirror behind the sink to watch Naruto who was hugging him from behind.

Naruto smiled dreamily. "You look so sexy tonight…"

Sasuke snorted. "You only think that because you picked the outfit."

"Hmmm." He nuzzled his lips against the nape of Sasuke's neck. His hand crept down to caress Sasuke's bare thigh, and Sasuke began to feel the familiar tingle of arousal beneath (and he could not believe he was saying this) his skirt.

"Naruto…we can't do this here…it's Sakura's place…it's a party…" Sasuke was not entirely comfortable with public sex.

Suddenly Naruto pushed him forward, forcing him to bend over the sink at the waist. He reached forward, twiddling Sasuke's nipples through the shirt and bra, making him moan at a sensation that he'd never felt before. With Sasuke bent over like this, Naruto's crotch was level with Sasuke's ass. Flipping the skirt up, Naruto began to grind the bulge in his trousers against Sasuke's crevice.

Naruto, tipsy as he was, was using his hold on Sasuke to keep him balanced. Leaning over, he whispered hoarsely in Sasuke's ear, "Touch yourself for me Sasuke…let me see you blush as you look at your lewd body in the mirror…make yourself come while I grind against this sexy butt…"

Sasuke hesitated but a moment, shuddering at Naruto's words. Then he did as Naruto bid, pleasuring himself through the skirt. He looked in the mirror with a combination of embarrassment and fascination. His cheeks were pink, his lipsticked mouth parted, his long hair dangling over his shoulders. Behind him, he caught flashed of blonde as Naruto intermittently bit, licked and sucked his neck. Was it wrong to get turned on by looking at yourself?

It didn't take long for both men to reach the peak of pleasure. Groaning and trembling, Sasuke passed a tissue back to Naruto. Moments later there were a few more forceful thrusts against his ass, wedging the fabric between his butt cheeks, then Naruto moaned and bit down on Sasuke's neck. Sasuke's body was so aroused that at this point his pain and pleasure signals were frankly a little mixed up, and this final sensation pushed him over the edge so fast that unlike Naruto he had no time to make use of the tissue.

He trembled as he came hard in his underwear and drooped forward, panting. Once he'd caught his breath and fixed himself to look presentable, he turned, catching Naruto by the wrist and dragged him from the bathroom. He bumped into Sakura as he was collecting Naruto's jumper, keys and briefcase.

"Sakura, we are heading off. He drank too much and I need to study tomorrow," he babbled, not believing how close to sex they'd come in her bathroom. Sakura didn't really see the connection between Naruto's drinking and Sasuke's study, but like a good hostess, she bid them farewell before heading back to the party.

Sasuke was uncomfortable on the way home; he could feel the damp, sticky patch in his underwear. When he got home and finally managed to get Naruto undressed and into bed, he headed for a quick shower. Soaking under the steamy water that was pounding against his back, he contemplated opening the file in Naruto's briefcase…but he couldn't do it. He would ask about it in the morning.

Finished with his shower and yawning about every thirty seconds, Sasuke stole under the covers beside Naruto and within two minutes was off in dreamland where folders could talk and Naruto was permanently in the fox outfit.

x-x-x-x-x

A/N:

So here's a new chapter that I wrote while procrastinating today. I hope you enjoy it, and I thank everyone who's read and/or reviewed in the past few days. Please feel free to review if you like (^_^)

~dusk. xo


	3. Chapter 3

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More.

**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu

**Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer**: The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Chapter Two

Naruto groaned as he cracked open his eyes. As usual, he had regrets about drinking at Sakura's party. Sakura always seemed to have really potent alcohol and when he drank with her, he usually ended up tipsy or drunk. Last night, he placed himself somewhere between the two…he didn't quite remember how he got home. He had definite memories of Sasuke in that skirt… He stretched out and realised he was naked. His hopes went up. Had he managed to bed Sasuke while semi conscious? Disappointment. Nope, Sasuke was next to him in black silk boxers.

Looking at the clock he worked out that it was 9.30am. That was a considerable sleep in for him. He carefully climbed out of bed, trying not to wake Sasuke. Grabbing his jogging gear, he went into the en suite, washed his face and brushed his teeth to get rid of the furry feeling. Twenty-five minutes later, after driving to a nearby wildlife sanctuary, his head was pounding as he started a slow jog up the incline on one of the parks easier trails.

The first fifteen minutes were the worst, but with the frequent sips of water and the sweat pouring off of his back, he soon began to feel much more alive. Getting back to his car about fifty minutes later, Naruto was back to his cheerful, alert self. It was 11.30am when he got home and Sasuke was asleep on the lounge. Tiptoeing past, he went upstairs to the bedroom, where Sasuke had neatly made the bed and left the bathroom in order. He showered and threw on sweats and a pale blue tank top before heading sitting on bed with the folder Chouji had given him.

The file contained the all information that Shikamaru had managed to gather regarding Minato – which wasn't very much. As Naruto expected, most of Minato's files were sealed. The top page had a phone number scribbled under the name Kurenai Yuhi. The few other pages caused Naruto to grit his teeth. It was becoming apparent that against the policies of the adoption agency, Minato had sought out Naruto on his own. The file contained a couple of documents regarding Naruto's personal history over the last five years or so.

Naruto chewed on his lower lip as he considered whether or not to tell Sasuke. Flicking his eyes over the information once more, he finally decided against it. Knowing that Minato had dug around in his history wasn't enough to make him want to get in contact with him. He had a suspicion about Minato perhaps trying to provoke him into making contact, but he would leave it alone for now. He heard Sasuke's footsteps in the hallway and shoved the file into the briefcase and under the bed.

As Sasuke rounded the doorway, he was scratching his head and yawning. His eyes widened. "Oh, hey Naruto...you weren't here when I got up so I went and napped. I didn't hear you come in. How was your run?"

"Good, good. I went to the wildlife sanctuary."

"So…what was the file about? The one Chouji gave you last night?" Sasuke had been holding his curiosity in check since last night.

"Ah, nothing really important. Some stupid system updates and new recruit data," he responded vaguely. Sasuke looked a little put out.

"Oh. Well, that's disappointing. I was hoping maybe Shizune had sent home some more paperwork for you. What!" he exclaimed at Naruto's exasperated look. "Hey, I can dream, okay?"

Naruto chuckled. "If those are the best dreams you are coming up with, your imagination leaves much to be desired. Need me to think up something better?"

Sasuke smirked. "Maybe you could _show_ me something better." Naruto grinned too. Sounded like fun.

x-x-x-x-x

It had been a week and a half since Sakura's party and Sasuke was falling asleep in his business law lecture. Tuesday's were one of his longer days at uni and he always found this class incredibly boring. Just as his head was beginning to droop, he felt Sai give him a sharp jab in the ribs with his pen.

"Wake up and pay attention, she's going over the assignment," Sai whispered.

"Like you can talk," Sasuke whispered back, looking pointedly at the book in front of Sai which was covered in doodles. Sai rolled his eyes and went back to doodling and listening to the lecturer. Sasuke tuned in for the rest of the lecture and felt like cheering when the lecturer finally ended the class.

"Sasuke, what time do you finish today?" Sai asked as they walked to the campus cafeteria. Sasuke glanced at his watch, which read 12.34pm.

"I don't finish until 3pm, why?"

"Ah, well, it's just that some freak keyed up my car yesterday and it's in the shop getting fixed up. I was going to ask for a lift home at 2pm…but I have work. Don't worry, I'll skip my lecture and go by bus." Sasuke contemplated for a moment. He and Sai had only become friends in the last four months, when Sai transferred to his university. But Sasuke didn't have many friends on campus; much like high school he preferred to keep to himself bar a select few. Digging around in his bag, he pulled out his car keys.

"Here, use my car today. I'll call Naruto to pick me up when he finishes work at 6pm. You can't skip the lecture today – I remember we were told that there's a topic test today. Tomorrow you just drive it back and I'll get the keys from you."

"You sure?" Sai asked. When Sasuke nodded, Sai smiled and thanked him. "I'll have to make you a portrait or something, as thanks."

Sasuke felt vaguely uncomfortable with the level of appreciation. Mainly he was doing it because Naruto had encouraged him to be friendly with at least one or two people at university, thinking that a good social life would make Sasuke happier in the long run. "Er, it's fine. I'm sure you'd do the same. Anyway, we should head to class."

When 3.00pm rolled around, Sasuke was well and truly ready to go home. Standing in the university car park, he flipped his phone open and began to dial Naruto's numbers to ask him to meet him at the library at 6.30pm when from the corner of his eye he spotted the blonde leaning against a tree looking at him.

He hung up, smiling. "Hey, how did you know I needed a lift tod…" he trailed off when he realised that the man against the tree wasn't Naruto. He had a similar build to Naruto, but Sasuke would place his age range in the mid to late forties. His blonde hair was longer than Naruto's and his blue eyes were narrower, but there was no doubt in Sasuke's mind that this man was Naruto's father.

When Minato came forward from under the tree, Sasuke noticed that he was wearing an expensive Armani suit, crisp blue shirt unbuttoned at the neck, and his suit jacket hung loosely over his arm. Sasuke frowned. Naruto was going to be really peeved when he found out that Minato was checking up on them.

"Can I offer you a lift?" Sasuke was startled to hear him speak, the same deep voice as on the phone.

"Ah, I don't think so," Sasuke said as he flipped his phone open again to call Naruto. "He is going to be pissed to know that you are here." He was shocked when Minato grabbed the phone from his hand and slid it into his own pocket.

"Please do join me; I have a driver waiting around the corner." Sasuke knew that he shouldn't get into a car with someone he didn't know. He'd been taught that as a child.

But in his mind a little voice said, _But he has your phone. And you can always get out of the car. And he might have something important to say._ Sasuke, for a smart guy, was going to do something incredibly dumb. "Fine," he responded. He followed Minato around the corner to a large, black SUV with tinted windows. Minato held the door open and grinned a grin that was eerily familiar. When Sasuke got into the SUV he was surprised to find that the interior was custom designed to look like a limousine. It explained the tinted windows.

"Drive, Yamato," said Minato, once he had settled into the seat. Sasuke's heart thumped loudly. He hadn't given Minato an address, so where were they going?

"So, what do you want?" Sasuke asked coldly.

"Nothing unreasonable. Just to meet with Naruto." Minato continued to smile.

"Well, he doesn't want to meet with you. Additionally, we aren't going the right direction to get back home." Sasuke looked down his nose at Minato. This was the man who had abandoned his only family.

"I never said we would go to Naruto's home, I said I would give you a lift." Well. That ended the conversation. A while later they pulled up outside a hotel and Minato indicated that Sasuke should exit the vehicle.

Standing on the street in the early evening, Sasuke finally decided it was time to end this. "Minato, I don't know what game you are playing by bringing me here, but I'm leaving. You can keep the phone if you want." Turning to leave, he suddenly found something hard pressed against his ribcage.

"Come upstairs, Sasuke. I would hate to have to explain to my son why his roommate was shot by my driver." Sasuke felt a cold trickle of sweat descending along his neck. He turned slowly, and followed Minato into the fancy building. A brief conversation with the lady in reception and they were on their way to the seventeenth floor.

x-x-x-x-x

Naruto sat happily behind the wheel of his car. This was where he liked to be; in the field. Lee had assigned him to the downtown area by the railways. They were always short of people to police this area, mainly because it was quite dangerous and nothing the police did seemed to help. Naruto never told Sasuke which areas he got assigned to, in order to prevent him from worrying more. It was 5.15pm and he had only forty-five minutes left of his shift left.

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened today; there were the usual kids hanging about and the usual minor disputes. He had even got to go up a tree and save a cat (which actually happened more than you would think to personnel in the police force). Naruto's stomach growled, and he thought food-y thoughts to it, wondering what Sasuke would cook tonight. _Bzzzt_. _Bzzzt_. He felt his phone vibrate as it started to ring. Flipping it over, he smiled. Speak of the devil, he thought, seeing Sasuke's picture flash on screen.

"Hey Sasuke! I hope your ringing to tell me we have something good for dinner tonight." His heart almost stopped when he heard the reply.

"Hello, my son. Will you join me at the Twilight Zone Hotel?" Minato asked cheerfully.

"Minato…? Why have you got Sasuke's phone? Where is he?" Naruto was beginning to feel the bite of panic at his heels.

"Sasuke is fine. He is…keeping me company. Would you like to speak with him? Here," there was a rustling noise as the phone was passed between people, then Sasuke came on the line.

"Hello? Naruto?"

"Sasuke? Are you alright?"

"Ummm. Yeah. For the moment." There was a pause. "Don't come, Naruto! They have guns, and I don't kno- ah, don't…oof…" Sasuke groaned in the background.

"Sorry, Naruto. Sasuke was getting a bit over-enthusiastic. Why don't you come join us? Floor seventeen, room 12B." Click. Beep. Beep.

Naruto speed-dialled HQ's number, where a rookie picked up. "Hey, kid. Do me a favour and let Senior Detective Rock know that Uzumaki is clocking out early…for a personal emergency. Thanks."

At 6.45pm, Naruto entered the lobby of the Twilight Zone Hotel, heading straight for the elevator. He listened to the elevator music with growing frustration. But he kept his cool and observed his surroundings. It was an expensive, high-end hotel, so evidently Minato had money to spend. When he made it to the seventeenth floor and found the room, he finally noticed that it was also high security. Fingerprint identification was required to enter a room. Knocking on the door, he drew his gun.

Minato's voice came across cheerfully. "Please drop both your guns in the vase standing on the table just down the hall. Then you may come in." Naruto acquiesced, not wanting to endanger Sasuke. When he came back, the door to the room opened with a click, and Naruto cautiously entered. The door promptly snapped shut behind him, and he spun to find a bodyguard behind him. Seeing that no one else was in the living area, Naruto crossed to the master bedroom.

The first thing he noticed was Sasuke on the bed wearing nothing but a large, white business shirt that he recognised as one of his own, his pants, underwear and socks missing. He rushed over, anger welling as he noticed the purple bruise blooming across Sasuke's cheek.

"Are you okay? Has…has he touched you?" he demanded, reaching Sasuke, fingertips automatically feeling for broken cheekbones. Sasuke shook his head and pushed Naruto's hand away and indicating he should look behind him. Standing at the door was Minato, and Naruto's anger turned to white, hot fury. Without a seconds warning, he leaped from the bed and attacked his father. Following a short struggle, Naruto was pinned to the floor with his arm behind his back.

Minato chuckled. "You are about one hundred years too early to try that. I've been an agent for the last thirty years. I know how to fight." Letting Naruto stand, he indicated that he should join Sasuke on the bed. "I apologise for the damage to your roommate. Yamato, though instructed not to hurt him, got a little over-enthusiastic."

Naruto settled himself in front of Sasuke, acting as a shield. "First of all, you should apologise to him, not me. Second of all, he's my boyfriend, not my roommate. Thirdly," he glanced backwards, "why doesn't he have pants on?"

"Oh. Well then. Sorry, Naruto's boyfriend," Minato bowed formally, a mocking smile still on his lips. "And the lack of pants is purely professional. It was to encourage him not to attempt leaving."

"What. Do. You. Want?" growled Naruto.

"I'm your dad, it shouldn't matter what I want, you should come regardless. Instead, you've obviously never been taught manners, and you have ignored my attempts to contact you." Minato watched Naruto with some fascination, finally getting to observe their likeness in appearance in person for the first time.

"You are not my dad. You are my biological father. Jiraya was my Dad, and I don't owe you any manners. You can't just kidnap someone's lover and expect them to be all 'Hi, pleased ta meetcha!' about it." Naruto had finally calmed down somewhat.

"Well, I've been trying to contact you for years and you've been more unresponsive than initially predicted." Minato finally seemed a little put out.

"There are better ways you could have gone about this. If you are interested in getting to know me, just let Sasuke go home, and I will stay behind. Okay? Do we have a deal?" Naruto was impatient, he really wanted Sasuke home safe.

"Oh. I don't want to get to know you. I want to recruit you," Minato stated matter-of-factly. "As my son, clearly you will have high potential as a government agent. Every specialised agent that joins my task force saves more lives. It requires sacrifice, but the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. The man who can do that is a hero."

Naruto wasn't sure how to respond. The man who conceived him, the man who hadn't seen him for any of his twenty-six years of life, had come _not_ to get to know him, but to hire him. On top of which, he'd basically just bragged about being a hero for having no problems abandoning his family. Naruto felt like a dagger was stuck in his chest. Weren't parents supposed to want to protect their kids? Love them? Hold them? Comfort them?

"Well, consider your offer formally refused. I don't want to know about your secret taskforce or your crazy specialist members or your thoughts on what makes a hero. I just want to go home with my boyfriend and never see you again." Naruto glared at Minato, who looked dumbstruck.

"Well. This was unexpected. Blood is thicker than water. You should leave this…person. You should fight at your father's side." There was a snort of laughter from behind Naruto, and both men turned to look at him in surprise.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said between chuckles. "Other than being called a 'person' in a dubious tone of voice – though I guarantee you I am a flesh and blood human – you just said that blood is thicker than water right after bragging about leaving your only son with strangers, so you could go and fight on some secret taskforce. I can't work out if you're stupid or just arrogant."

Minato frowned. "Naruto, I strongly dislike your taste in partners."

"Yeah? Well, too bad because I love him, and you've got no say," said Naruto, grinning. He turned and pecked Sasuke on the cheek, whispering a small thank you in his ear. Hearing Sasuke speak up had reminded him that there was no point in arguing with a man like Minato. There was no point in getting worked up until later on; and when later on rolled around, the one to love him, the one to hold him and the one to comfort him would be Sasuke.

"Look, Minato. Obviously, this isn't working out the way you thought it would. You will give Sasuke back his clothes, and then we are going home to our house. If you want to contact me, you will call police head quarters on this number," Naruto handed him a card, "and then ask for Shikamaru Nara, who will make arrangements. You never touch my friends or family again – and Sasuke _is_ my family. Not you."

Minato sighed. "I'm sure you will eventually come around. For now, I'll do as you say. His clothes are in that bathroom." Sasuke slid off the bed and walked briskly from the room to get changed. As soon as he was done, he and Naruto left the room after Sasuke grabbed his phone and headed down to Naruto's car. They drove in silence and Sasuke popped one of the high strength pain killers kept in the car from a time Naruto had broken his wrist. The pain in his cheek had worsened and he strongly suspected a fractured cheek bone. Not that he'd told Naruto.

As the silence drew out longer, Naruto began to think that Sasuke was mad at him for letting this happen. It took him five minutes to work out that Sasuke wasn't angry at all – he was asleep due to the pain killer. Naruto exhaled strongly. They had a lot to talk about in the morning.

x-x-x-x-x

A/N: Hey guys,

So here's another chapter xD You're all probably wondering why these last three have come out so fast…let's put it down to stress. I have exams this week…so when I feel stressed, I write a new chapter…I'd say it's working out well for people who are following this :P

Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. I will try to post another soon – I'm sure there is more stress to come, lol xD

~dusk. xo


	4. Chapter 4

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More.  
**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu**  
Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.**  
Disclaimer**: The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Chapter Four

When Sasuke woke up, he groaned. He reached a hand to his face and felt the puffy, tender flesh there. Juuust great. This was going to make Naruto fuss. Speaking of Naruto, he turned his head slightly to see his boyfriend sprawled on his stomach, legs tangled in the sheet from tossing and turning. Sasuke went to the bathroom to relieve himself and cringed (which actually hurt to do) when he saw his face in the mirror. The left cheek was severely bruised and his eye was swollen and puffy.

Sneaking downstairs, grabbed a packet of frozen peas from the freezer and lay on the couch using them as an icepack. He really shouldn't have gone yesterday. Stupid, stupid, _stupid_. Upstairs, he could hear the creak of floorboards as Naruto got out of bed and dressed. He enjoyed the silence of downstairs for a further twenty minutes before Naruto thumped down the stairs.

He took one look at Sasuke's face and any trace of a smile that may have been on his lips died. "Hospital," he said grimly. Sasuke nodded, and Naruto knew it must hurt pretty badly because Sasuke was rarely complacent, he took great enjoyment in teasing him and disputing his decisions. Naruto grabbed a muesli bar for himself and on-the-go smoothie for Sasuke with a straw in the top.

While they drove to the hospital Naruto was on his hands free headset calling Shikamaru. After a brief explanation of what happened, Naruto hung up and explained that Shikamaru was to be the middle man and traded shifts with Chouji so that he could have the rest of the day off, and work tomorrow's day shift instead.

The doctor at the hospital immediately sent Sasuke for x-rays, while Naruto contended with nurses who were trying to tell him that only family and wives could go past the waiting area. The head nurse looked at the chart. "You aren't listed as family here…and you don't seem to be married into his family… I'm sorry; we can't let friends through just because they say they are family."

Naruto's eyes blazed as he finally cracked, "Excuse me, he is my lover, and that counts as a partner or wife, so let me through. Also, check his next of kin, and I guarantee you it's listed as me." There was a moment of surprised silence, none of the nurses had picked Naruto and Sasuke as a couple when they came in bickering, and the head nurse flipped through a couple of pages, lips pursed, then nodded as she found the page.

Finally they let him through and he went to sit in Sasuke's room. Sasuke raised his non-sore eyebrow. "Hn. I could hear you fussing from in here. Making such a big deal of it."

"Yeah, well. I'm allowed to fuss." Conversation ended there and it was frowns all around.

When the doctor came in later on, Sasuke was dozing and Naruto was reading a magazine that the nurse had brought in from the waiting room. Naruto poked Sasuke gently to wake him. Once they were both paying attention the doctor spoke, while looking at the x-rays.

"Ok, I looked at the x-rays, and it seems you are a lucky man, Mr Uchiha. While there is a crack in your cheekbone, it's not a full fracture, and doesn't continue all the way through the bone. This means you won't need surgery to fix it. Swelling should subside in the next seven days and bruising should be gone within the next three weeks.

Your cheekbone itself should heal on its own within the next six to eight weeks, though I will prescribe some pain killers for you. I must ask you to refrain from blowing your nose for the next three weeks, until you've had a check up. You may also want to stick to easy to chew foods as it will hurt less. If you have no questions, you are ready to be discharged."

Neither could think of anything to ask, so after setting an appointment to come back in three weeks, they headed back home.

x-x-x-x-x

"We need to talk."

Sasuke looked up from where he was changing into his black silk boxers. Naruto was sitting on the bed watching him change. He sighed, knowing that there was no way that they were avoiding this conversation. He went and sat opposite Naruto on the end of the bed, resigned to his fate, and said, "Okay. Let's talk."

"Sasuke," Naruto shook his head, not sure where to begin. "Why did you get in the car with him? I mean, it's just such an unbelievably stupid thing to do. Your way past the age of me saying 'you should know better than that.'"

"It was stupid. I just thought that I could…maybe convince him to leave you alone," Sasuke looked away. "I justified it to myself using stupid reasons like the fact that he had my phone, but it's not really that. Every time he tries to contact you, you get so angry and frustrated. I just thought that maybe I could work out some important information for you, like whether he has been checking in on us or not – I mean he knew where my university was."

"And that was all it took? For God's sake, Sasuke! He could have killed you! You didn't even call me, and if you had I could have told you that he's been watching me for five years." Sasuke's lips thinned.

"That," he said coldly, "you didn't tell me. How did you find that out?" Naruto realised his mistake too late to avoid it.

"I…well, it was the file that Chouji gave me. I didn't want to worry you by telling you that he was checking in on me." Naruto shrugged. "And I didn't figure on you being stupid enough to get into a car with a guy you don't know, and I clearly don't like."

"Fine," Sasuke snapped. "It's clear that I'm an idiot. I'm stupid. Let's move on from that. Why didn't you call the cops? Or bring back up? I _told_ you on the phone that they had guns, and got punched in the stomach for my efforts."

"Well, I assumed that he wouldn't shoot the son he's being trying to contact for five years. I also assumed he wouldn't shoot my lover, because that wouldn't be something that would endear him to me." Naruto frowned. "I also assumed he wouldn't break your cheekbone, so clearly I was wrong."

"Hn. Clearly." Sasuke glared at him. "You always seem so surprised that you can be wrong, because a great detective like you could never make a dumb mistake like me. Right?" Naruto looked surprised. He hadn't expected this level of anger from Sasuke.

"Sasuke, what the hell is your prob-" Naruto started before he was interrupted.

"Oh, so _I'm _the one with the problem? This is rich, coming from the guy with daddy issues. Obviously you inherited his arrogance," Sasuke sneered. Naruto's face turned red and his teeth clenched, hands balling into fists.

"You're taking this too far Sasuke! We both made mistakes and I'm _trying_ to sort this out with you but instead you're just being so…so…!"

"Hah! Just admit it you're so angry you want to hit me. Come on, do it. I dare you, why not break the other cheekbone. Not man enough?" Naruto trembled with barely contained anger. Abruptly, Sasuke turned and started changing into jeans. "I've had enough. I'm going to visit Gaara and Neji."

Naruto made no reply, instead crossing to the en suite and slamming the door shut behind him, clicking the lock into place. Five minutes passed and he heard Sasuke leave the house. He recognised the sound of his own car as it revved into life, Sasuke's currently being with Sai.

Sitting on the toilet with the lid down, he rested his forehead against his bruised knuckles. That was not a fight he had seen coming. He had known Sasuke was bothered about the whole situation, maybe embarrassed too, but to throw his Minato's nasty personality into his face like that…

Thinking about the last couple of days made Naruto sigh. Sasuke rarely did stupid things, in fact he was usually the one to stop Naruto from drunken antics that would be regrettable later on. The last time he'd done something that had caused this big of a blowout was at least a year ago when he started a bar fight with three bikers while Naruto had been in the bathroom.

Naruto suddenly sat up straighter. A year ago? Shit. He rapidly exited the bathroom and headed for a calendar. Seeing the date, he lightly thumped his head against a wall, cursing himself for not noticing. It was November the twelfth, which meant that three days from now would be fourth anniversary of the death of Sasuke's parents.

To an outsider, this wouldn't explain or justify Sasuke's behaviour but to Naruto, it made everything clear. In their second year living together, Sasuke had started having vivid nightmares involving the deaths of his parents and of Itachi, followed by increasing incidences of behaviour that put himself in danger. It had gotten bad enough that Naruto forced him to go get counselling.

The result had been a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and survivors guilt. Sasuke's attempts to make Naruto hit him before were one sign that he was asking for punishment that he wrongly felt he deserved. Things were normally fine, but around mid-November each year, Sasuke got agitated and reckless.

Flicking open his cell phone, Naruto typed Gaara's number and hit call.

"Yes?" huffed the voice on the other end of the line.

"Gaara? It's Naruto. Sasuke's going to be at your place in about fifteen minutes or so…" Naruto heard Gaara's murmur to Neji of, 'Oi, Nej, Sasuke's coming, so you may want to see if you can find some pants or something…' then the sheets rustling and the sound of cursing in the background. "It's that time of year… He's in a pretty bad way, so, you know, let send him home before he does anything stu-…before he does anything irrational. Try not to use the word 'stupid'."

"Right. Thanks for the heads up." Gaara hung up, leaving Naruto to wait for Sasuke's eventual return home.

x-x-x-x-x

Gaara waited expectantly by the intercom.

Bzzzt. "Room 1204, there is a Mr Sasuke Uchiha at the desk asking to see you. Would you like us to send him through?"

He hit the reply button and sighed. "Buzz him up."

Two minutes later, Sasuke walked through the door of the high rise apartment. He entered the lounge room to find Gaara sitting at the head of the couch, while Neji lay with his head in Gaara's lap. Sasuke flopped into the nearest armchair while Neji and Gaara took in his battered appearance.

"Cheek?" Neji enquired, finally tired of waiting for Sasuke to explain his abrupt evening visit.

"Naruto's biological father…" At those words, Gaara sat a little straighter and Neji's eyebrows went up. Both knew a little regarding Naruto's father, as he'd had to explain why he was changing telephone numbers a couple of years ago.

Gaara frowned. "He put you in a dangerous situation and allowed you to get hurt? By the looks of that, I would wager you've at least been to the doctor's right?"

Now Sasuke looked away. "He didn't exactly put me in that situation. Although he could of prevented it," he accused without force. "You guys have any alcohol?" He got up and was rummaging through the fridge when Neji's hand clamped down on his wrist.

"You on pain killers for the cheek?" He saw that he was correct when Sasuke seemed to have difficulty looking him in the eye. Steering him away from the fridge and back to the armchair, Neji soon supplied him with a can of soda before sitting back down with Gaara. "You are aware that mixing medicine and alcohol, then potentially driving under the influence of both is possibly lethal and definitely not an intelligent course of action, right?"

"You're not my freaking mother," Sasuke said, while he glared at them. Of course he knew better, but he'd be damned if he felt like admitting it to them. It wasn't like he was planning on doing that. The little voice in his head that he refused to call his conscience said, _ah, but as a med student you were more than aware that it would be a bad idea…even if you don't want to admit it to yourself_.

Gaara rolled his eyes. "Uchiha, you should know that glare will never work on us, so put it away before the wind changes and you face is stuck like that. And stop trying to pick a fight. So, you're visiting us at 9.30pm on a weeknight because…?" Gaara prompted.

"To watch movies." Two sceptical stares. "Okay, I fought with Naruto…I just needed to be away from him. He's trying to lecture me; I'm not a child or some idiot rookie at HQ. I'm his boyfriend." Sasuke fiddled with the necklace that Naruto had given him for his eighteenth birthday.

"Was he lecturing you because he was being condescending, or was he lecturing you because he was worried about you?" Neji held up a hand for silence when he saw Sasuke opening his mouth to retort. "Really think about it before you answer, Sasuke. We've known him as long as you, and he doesn't seem the sort to suddenly get all high and mighty."

Sasuke flushed, part embarrassed and part annoyed. Even his friends were calling him on his bad behaviour tonight. Sighing he let his head drop back against the chair. "Okay, so maybe I did something stupid."

Gaara stood up. "I know you came here to get away from it, but you can either sit here and talk to us about how you're fighting with Naruto, or you can go home, patch things up with Naruto, and talk about the real problems you are having. Either way, you need to let me know what you are going to do because I need to call and let Naruto know how long you'll be gone. Neji saw you parking and it looks like Naruto won't have a car for tomorrow if you stay here."

Sasuke sighed, knowing he was defeated. "Alright, I'll go. But next time you guys have an argument, I'm sending whoever comes to see me home to patch things up." He grabbed his keys off the bench and raised a hand to Neji and Gaara as he walked out the door.

Neji looked somewhat offended, and Gaara raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "We don't fight," he said grumpily, before noticing Gaara's grin. "Well, we don't!" Gaara smiled and tugged Neji towards the bedroom to finish unfinished business.

x-x-x-x-x

It was 10.30pm when Naruto finally heard his car pull into the driveway. Still fully dressed, he waited on the sofa. When Sasuke came in, he waited silently to find out if there were more arguments to come tonight. Sasuke, stood in the doorway for a moment before going to sit beside Naruto.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said stiffly.

Naruto smiled, relieved, and said, "Are you…okay?" It made Sasuke's chest hurt when he realised that despite the nasty things he'd said earlier, Naruto was still worried about him. Naruto's smile shrank and he looked at Sasuke unhappily for a moment before saying, "I should have noticed earlier. About the time of year, about how edgy you've been over the last few days, but I got pre-occupied with work…and Minato."

Sasuke hesitated. "It…it's not your fault. I could have talked to you…but I thought I was coping on my own. It just sometimes feels wrong. I'm alive, and everyone else in my family is gone. I try not to think about it, but then the anniversary of their…of it rolls around and I can't stop thinking about it, about how they were driving home to pick me up for the university open day…" He trailed off sadly. "I know we've had this discussion before, about the reckless behaviour. But seriously, I never realise that I'm doing it until later."

"Ahhh, Sasuke. I don't think it's anyone's fault. Now that you are aware of it maybe you can be more conscious of decisions you are making."

Relief flickered across Sasuke's face before he schooled it back to his neutral expression. "Shall we head upstairs…? It's late, and you have work tomorrow." Naruto nodded. After they had both settled into the big double bed, Naruto could still feel the tension lying between them. Not anger, just tension.

Naruto cleared his throat in the dim light, lying next to Sasuke. "You know, I still can't believe he hit my lover in the face. I was thinking about what you said happened with Minato and I, uh, I notice you said he hit you in the stomach when we were on the phone. So the cheek…?"

Sasuke's good cheek blushed and there was a spike Naruto's curiosity. "Er, the cheek thing wasn't because of you. And he didn't know we were lovers…he called us roommates remember?"

"Nah, he knew. It was written in the file. I'm pretty sure he was just enjoying pissing me off." Naruto would not be deterred. "Your cheek?" Sasuke scowled before recounting what had occurred.

Up in the hotel room, he'd been doubled over on the lounge room floor by Yamato's gut punch. Glaring at Yamato and Minato in turn, he listened to Minato. "…getting a bit over-enthusiastic. Why don't you come join us? Floor seventeen, room 12B." When he hung up, Minato looked over to Sasuke.

"Hmmm. That was gutsier than I would have given you credit for. Maybe we should make sure you don't attempt an escape. Take off your shirt, pants and shoes." Minato seemed cheerful but not lecherous.

"Like hell I will," Sasuke retorted. When Yamato began to move towards him, Sasuke backed up. Yamato made a snatch at his shirt, tearing a gaping hole in the front.

"Don't make me make Yamato undress you. It will be a bit awkward when my son shows up if I tell him someone undressed you by force." Sasuke thought it would be awkward regardless of how he ended up undressed but was smart enough to stay quiet.

"Fine," Sasuke said moving into the master bedroom, then into the bathroom. After splashing some water on his face. He balled up the ruined shirt and threw it in the corner. He slipped off the jeans, shoes and socks, leaving them neatly next to the sink. All he was left in was his black boxer briefs. Looking in the mirror, he contemplated escape routes.

He thinks I wouldn't dare to run down to the lobby in my underwear. Of course I would, and why not? I'm good looking. The other guests will either enjoy the view or put it down to stupid youthful behaviour – like a dare, or something, thought Sasuke.

Having decided that escape was the best plan of action, he went back into the other room carrying his torn shirt in a bundle. Minato was lying on the lounge now playing with Yamato's gun, with nothing to do but to wait for Naruto. Yamato was standing near the door with Sasuke's backpack behind him. When he was no more than a few feet from the door, he slung the balled up top in Yamato's face, yanked open the door and bolted down the hallway.

His action had momentarily stunned Yamato, but he recovered quickly. He caught Sasuke right before the elevator. Grabbing him around the waist, intending to drag him back to the room, Yamato was surprised when the squirming Sasuke relaxed completely, unbalancing Yamato who had been unprepared to carry Sasuke's dead weight. Grunting as he tried to pull Sasuke upward, his breath left his body as Sasuke took a cheap shot, elbowing him in the groin. Hard. Pissed off and in a great deal of pain, Yamato carelessly hit out at Sasuke and feeling two of his knuckles dislocate as they connected with Sasuke's cheek.

Sasuke, stunned by the pain, fell back against the floor for a moment and Minato finally intervened. He looked at Sasuke and said conversationally, "You see, this is why I hate training rookies. He was told not to harm you and couldn't even subdue you without getting injured." He helped Sasuke up, then forced his arms up behind his back, marching him back to the room and leaving Yamato to follow in his own time.

"Once again, you surprised me." Minato contemplated for a moment. "Take off the underwear. With no clothes and that massive bruise, if you choose to run again, we will convince people it was you attacking some poor woman up here before we chased you off."

"I'm not taking them off," Sasuke replied immediately. "I'm not sitting buck naked, alone and outnumbered in a room with two arrogant asses like you."

Minato pulled out a camera. "If you do not undress right now, I will make sure that pictures of you like this are posted to every person that you try to get employed by. If you had a shirt left, I would've let you wear that but unfortunately…" There was a ripping sound, and Sasuke saw the shredded remains of the shirt on the ground at a smiling Yamato's feet.

Sighing, he crossed the room slowly, to show he wasn't making a run for it, and dug around in his bag, pulling out one of Naruto's large old business shirts that he wore to visit Sai in his art class. He put the shirt on and removed his underwear then went and sat on the bed in the master bedroom without a word, but sneered as much as his sore face would allow at Yamato, before settling down to wait for Naruto.

Sasuke glared at Naruto who was grinning broadly at this point. "You actually tried to escape in your underwear?" Naruto actually laughed. That sounded like his cocky boyfriend. What kidnapped person forced to undress thinks 'I'm good looking. The other guests will either enjoy the view or put it down to stupid youthful behaviour'? Only Sasuke.

"So. Is there anything else to add?" asked Naruto while Sasuke cursed him under his breath.

"Just…" Sasuke hesitated. "Was it too convenient that he came on a day when I'd lent my car to someone else? I gave Sai my keys, then later when I was calling you for a lift, I mistook him for you." Naruto was momentarily disconcerted to hear it mentioned that he looked like his father. He had been so focused on getting Sasuke safe at the time, he hadn't noticed.

Sighing and coming back to the present, Naruto flipped out his phone. "Hey Shika, I need to you look up another name… Sai… Last name?" Sasuke shook his head. "No last name, but he goes to Sasuke's uni… Yep, thanks… Okay. Bye." The lay silently once more.

Sasuke yawned and couldn't keep from groaning as the pain lanced through his cheek. Naruto looked across, concerned. "Did you take any of your pain meds this evening?" When Sasuke shook his head, Naruto grabbed a glass of water and two night time pain pills from the medicine cabinet in the en suite and dropped them into Sasuke's palm. "Take them now. It'll hurt less and they should help you sleep."

Sasuke took them and within three minutes, he lapsed into a groggy quietness. Naruto's own eyes were just beginning to shut when he heard Sasuke mutter sleepily, "I really am sorry…"

He allowed one hand to settle on Sasuke's shoulder before he whispered his own response of, "I know."

x-x-x-x-x

A/N: Ahhhhh! *tears hair out* this chapter was so hard to write…mostly because there was so much crap that Sasu and Naru needed to wade through for me to be satisfied with it. I hope you guys don't hate it xD I hope that you guys still love Sasu… xD

Hopefully, the next chapter won't be so heavy (^_ ~)

Happy reading!

~dusk. xo


	5. Chapter 5

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More

**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu

**Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer**: The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make a profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Chapter Five

Naruto parked behind HQ twenty minutes early and went to meet Shikamaru in the tearoom. He'd organised to meet Shikamaru just before changeover. In the tearoom, he found his friend occupying his usual space on the lounge.

"Hey, Shika," Naruto said, managing to be both cheerful and quiet. Shikamaru opened one eye, then yawned and sat up, while watching Naruto prepare two mugs of coffee.

"Why," he said grumpily, "are you always so awake at the beginning of a 5.30am shift? All the normal people are still yawning when they come in, yet you are all full of beans. I feel sorry for Sasuke."

Naruto chuckled. "Well, I'm sure Sasuke doesn't mind my morning enthusiasm. It means that sometimes after I run, I can vigorously wake him by-"

"Enough," butted in Shikamaru, holding up a hand and rolling his eyes. "I know you love to tease me, but there's only so much I want to know about your sex life. So please, no more." He saw Naruto's grin widen and he rolled his eyes again. "Anyway, you wanted to meet up for a reason, remember?"

"Ah, yeah," said Naruto, becoming serious. "I wanted to hear what you found out that wasn't included in the folder."

Shikamaru scratched his head and accepted a mug of coffee from Naruto. "Hmmm. Well, from what I could find – some of which was not by legal methods – Minato Namikaze works for the FBI in a division dedicated to transnational crimes. I'm fairly certain he's in our area for work reasons. Personal history, let's see," he said, thumbing through a sheaf of papers, "never married, no children are listed here, his parents passed away years ago, ummm, I don't know what else to tell you about him. There's very little documentation on him, though, there are many rumours in his favour about his exploits."

"Okay, well if he contacts you about me, can you organise any meetings on my behalf to occur here, at HQ? Other than Minato, do you have any information on the other guy? The 'student' from Sasuke's uni?" Naruto shifted to Sai, truly curious about whether the use of Sasuke's car was an orchestrated event.

"Well, his data is interesting. He really is a university student, fully registered. But his university bills are being footed by the FBI. I'm not sure whether he's working for them while at university or whether they are paying for his education in return for his services once he's done, so I can't tell you whether he's friendly with Minato or not." Shikamaru yawned. "Honestly, I'm pretty sure I'll get into trouble if I dig any further than this into the FBI's files. Sorry, Naruto."

"Nah, that's plenty. Thanks, Shika," said Naruto with a distracted smile. Finishing off his coffee, Naruto bid Shikamaru farewell and headed off to his desk. There was a memo in his tray telling him that he had a meeting with Shizune at 11am. No subject had been included. Naruto wondered if this was some kind of extended punishment. If he had to go to a meeting, it meant he couldn't go do field work. Which meant paperwork. Sigh.

x-x-x-x-x

When Naruto clomped into Shizune's office later on, she had to raise her mug to cover the grin forming upon seeing Naruto's expression. He only ever got that look when he did paperwork, and somehow it was fun to torment him by giving him paperwork. Though this time she legitimately needed a meeting with him, the paperwork was just happened to be a bonus.

After flopping into the chair opposite her, Naruto said, "So _why_ have I been stuck here all morning, Shizu?

"Remember that case against Orochimaru from three years ago, the one that crumbled in court after the evidence was compromised by our lab techs? Well, recently there have been reports that he is dealing in human trafficking now. He's not just smuggling people over the border, he's actually using people in medical experiments against their will. Now we have the chance to build a new case against him and so a new task force is being built. You're one of our best, and a request has put in that you lead the police task force."

Naruto was practically jumping out of his skin with excitement. This was what he had been waiting for; he was going to actually lead a taskforce of his own, in the field. No more paperwork…for a while, anyway. In his head, he thought about the appropriate people to gather for a task force. While Naruto was off in his own world, the door opened behind him and he noticed Shizune sitting a little straighter in her seat.

"Naruto, this time around we are corroborating with the FBI's transnational crimes unit to catch Orochimaru since he's working across multiple borders. Through the FBI Liaison, we have organised for a small FBI unit to work as part of your team," Shizune suddenly looked nervous, and with good reason. When Naruto turned to see who he would be working with, he felt his heart sink as his anger boiled up to the surface.

Naruto stood and slammed his hands down on Shizune's desk. "No," he said. "How could you ask me to work with this _asshole_? I bet that he's the one that put in the request for me to lead the team, and I guarantee you it's not because I'm the best here. He pretty much kidnapped Sasuke. He doesn't follow the rules of the adoption agency and won't leave me alone." He spun on his heel and stormed out of the office, leaving Shizune and Minato in an awkward silence.

"Ah," said Shizune. "That didn't go so well." Her gaze flicked up to the man whose resemblance to Naruto was incredibly creepy. "Additionally, I was told that you'd had no contact with him over his life. Other than through that lawyer, Kurenai Yuhi." It was rare to see Naruto so angry, and through the window she could see the other officers carefully avoiding the area he was stomping around in.

"Well, I wanted to recruit him without going through the official channels. I had hoped that he would feel some sense of loyalty to his blood relative," he shrugged. Shizune sighed in disgust and shook her head.

"If you had asked, I would have told you that would never work. I've known him since he was nothing but a rookie. I guarantee you he'll cool down and be back in this room within five minutes." Minato raised an eyebrow, but didn't dispute what Shizune said. Four minutes later, Naruto brusquely re-entered the office and sat opposite Shizune without a second glance at Minato.

"I thought it over," he said. "And I want in regardless of who else is on the team. This is an opportunity for me, and no matter how it came about, I'm taking it. I get to pick the team, right?" Shizune nodded, relieved that Naruto had returned without creating a fuss. This _was_ an opportunity for him and she wanted to see him succeed under his own steam. "Well, there are four personnel that I am requesting, then. Shikamaru Nara, for technical assistance and surveillance. Chouji Akimichi and Lee Rock, for support. Finally, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, since having a trained police dog on the squad could come in extremely useful at some point."

"Well, that sounds fine. Your request is granted; there will be a meeting tomorrow around 2pm in the conference room. Minato and two others will be joining your team, but I think introductions can wait until then." Shizune gave a nod dismissing Naruto and he left, heading straight for his car. The shift was over and he needed to be away from work, away from Minato.

x-x-x-x-x

Sasuke sat at the kitchen table surrounded by books. He'd already been to his morning classes, and a friend of Sai's had returned his car keys to him. He found this extremely suspicious, but his cheek was still throbbing and rather than seeking out more trouble, he'd decided to go home and work on his university assignments.

It was almost 3pm when he heard Naruto's car pull into the driveway. He glanced at the clock, thinking it would be good if he could get another hour of study done before dinner. That thought was pushed out of his mind when the front door slammed shut. It was unusual for Naruto to come home in a bad mood, even on days where he'd been on desk duty doing paperwork all day.

Naruto walked into the kitchen, yanking the refrigerator door so hard that the entire fridge moved forwards a centimetre or two. He pulled out the carton of orange juice, drinking straight from the carton – a habit Sasuke despised – then put it away and came to sit at the table. He ran a hand through his already well mussed hair and sighed.

Sasuke put down his pen and stared at Naruto across the table, waiting for an explanation of the bad mood. Naruto sighed again, before noticing Sasuke's stare. Instead of answering the question in Sasuke's expression, he instead asked, "How's the cheek? Bruising looks pretty nasty in the sunlight."

Sasuke shrugged one shoulder. "It's not as bad as it could be, I guess, but at the moment I'm not really interested in my sore cheek. What's wrong? Bad day?"

After a brief hesitation, the words flooded out. "Like you wouldn't believe. I got made head of a taskforce today. Exciting, right? I have the opportunity to advance my career and prove my worth. I even get to work with the FBI's transnational crimes unit," said Naruto sarcastically, before going on bitterly, "and you want to guess who is head of that unit, who I have to work with for the foreseeable future?"

Sasuke's right eye twitched as he realised where this was going. "Minato?" he guessed through clenched teeth.

"Yep." There seemed to be nothing more to say about it. Many people would have asked why Naruto didn't just turn down the job, but Sasuke was aware of how rare opportunities like this were. Sasuke finally stood up and walked around to the other side of the table, leaning over to hug Naruto from behind.

Naruto understood the comfort Sasuke was trying to give and let he head drop back against Sasuke's shoulder. "It's not all bad. I get to pick my own team – Shika, Chouji, Lee and Kiba will be working with me for this assignment. Thank god for small mercies."

Sasuke released Naruto from the hug and moved into the kitchen to order pizza since he no longer felt like cooking. After ordering, he turned to Naruto and asked, "Is there anything I can do to make things better?"

A sudden grin crossed Naruto's face. "You have tomorrow off right? Feel like coming to visit me at work around 2.00pm?"

Not really understanding Naruto's swift mood change, but accepting it anyway, Sasuke replied, "Sure. I've got no plans anyway."

x-x-x-x-x

At ten to two, Naruto was already waiting impatiently in the office that his taskforce had been designated for the arrival of the FBI guys. Kiba and Lee kept to themselves in the corner, Akamaru asleep at his master's feet. Chouji had taken it upon himself to fill them in on the events that had occurred in the past few days, so they were well aware of why Naruto looked so aggravated about working with the FBI team. Shikamaru was the only one moving around, fastidiously organising his computer monitors around him so that they were positioned perfectly to his satisfaction, and god help anyone who moved them even a quarter of an inch out of place.

It was almost two when Yamato walked in, and everyone was instantly on edge when they saw Naruto stiffen in his seat.

"The other agents will be here momentarily, they're just organising some paperwork," said Yamato, to explain why he came alone.

Naruto stared for a moment before saying abruptly, "Guys, Yamato and I need a moment alone. To talk." Nobody moved for three full seconds, before everyone bustled out the door.

Yamato's body language when Naruto shut the door and clicked the lock into place was tense. Naruto moved to stand directly in front of him, glaring at the man who's fractured his lover's cheekbone. Yamato's fingers twitched next to his leg, too swollen to form a closed fist after dislocating his fingers two days prior.

The narrowing of Naruto's eyes was the only warning given before Naruto balanced his stance and thrust the heel of his palm into Yamato's nose, the resulting crunch indicating a break. Without stopping to think, Naruto punched him in the stomach and then just as swiftly kneed him in the groin. Yamato collapsed to his knees, groaning. His eyes were streaming from the hit to the nose and he felt winded from the gut punch.

"The punch to the stomach was for helping Minato kidnap Sasuke and for hitting him in the stomach. The broken nose was breaking Sasuke's cheek and," Naruto glowered at Yamato, whose nose was now dripping crimson blood, "the knee to the groin was because I don't like the fact that you have been in the room with a semi-naked Sasuke. If I could get away with it, I would do it to Minato too, but for now, you're all I can get to. _Don't_ piss me off again."

Naruto unlocked the door and walked over to the rest of his team who were standing at Kiba's desk, leaving Yamato hunched over on the floor. Each person's eyes widened slightly as they realised that Naruto had obviously had more than words with Yamato, but being friends of both Naruto and Sasuke, they all felt that the reaction was justified. They were all startled when Naruto broke into a smile. Turning to see the cause, they found Sasuke walking through the front door.

Raising a hand to everyone in greeting and momentarily returning Naruto's smile, Sasuke joined them at Kiba's desk. Sasuke's eyebrows shot up, realising that he could see Yamato's prone form in the office room behind him. Naruto grinned and Sasuke sighed. The chuckles this interaction caused amongst those standing at the desk made Sasuke uncomfortable when he realised they all might know about the events of the last few days.

"So," Kiba grinned at Sasuke, while petting Akamaru, "we heard about your little 'adventure'. Well damn, Sasuke, don't get into the car with a strange man. I mean, he didn't even give you candy first!" Sasuke felt his face burn bright red, his suspicion confirmed. They definitely knew.

For a moment he wasn't sure how to respond, then finally he grinned and much to his relief the rest of his and Naruto's friends grinned too. "Well, I have to keep Naruto on his toes…you _know_ how bored he gets when he has to do heaps of paperwork. Oh wait, that was my fault, too." Naruto rolled his eyes at Sasuke's quip causing another round of laughter.

Finally the laughter died down as a familiar blonde man joined them at the desk. Sasuke moved to stand beside Naruto, his arm pressed against Naruto's for support. Minato looked around the group of now unsmiling faces. "I guess we should be getting started soon, well, as soon as Sai arrives and Yamato manages to pick himself up off the floor," he said, giving a disinterested sniff.

At a look from Naruto, everyone traipsed back into conference room wordlessly leaving Minato, Naruto and Sasuke at the desk. Minato took in the appearance of Sasuke's cheek. Eyes shifting to Naruto, he said without ceremony, "My man won't press charges for the nose if your friend doesn't press charges for the cheek." Naruto glared daggers at Minato, but Sasuke nudged him and finally he reluctantly nodded. Minato looked at Sasuke contemptuously. "_You_ should go back to Naruto's house, as we are about to conduct police business."

A muscle in Naruto's jaw twitched. Goddamn it, this man knew how to push his buttons. Reaching out to grip Sasuke's chin with one hand, Naruto planted a light, lingering kiss on Sasuke's lips before saying, "Go back to our place, I'll be home in a few hours." Sasuke blushed again; he and Naruto rarely made completely public displays of affection, keeping it low profile unless with friends or on their own. But, in saying that, he also understood Naruto's need to try and rile this man up.

Head held high, Sasuke turned and walked out of the police station, pausing only briefly near the door to wave to Naruto.

x-x-x-x-x

Other than the fact that Yamato had been hunched over and glaring, the meeting had gone quite well. Minato and Naruto managed to focus on the case like professionals and sooner than anyone thought, the taskforce was ready to commence investigations into Orochimaru's illegal activities. Long after the rest of the group had left, Naruto finally switched off his computer and yawned so widely that it brought tears to his eyes. A glance at his wristwatch startled him into movement.

In his car, the clock read 8.14PM , meaning he'd been at the office more than the few hours he'd promised Sasuke. When he arrived home, he was surprised to find that the front door was locked and the lights were out. He soon found a note on the kitchen table from Sasuke saying he was feeling restless and going for a jog.

Naruto shucked his work clothes and replaced them with his jogging clothes, setting out along the familiar track near their house. After a comfortable warming up pace for five minutes, he shifted into a gruelling run that was motivated by his desire to catch up with Sasuke. Five minutes later, he reached the top of the track and was surprised to find Sasuke sitting against a tree under the light of the stars, obviously waiting for him.

Sweat trickled down his brow and he stretched as he waited for his breathing to become even. Sasuke stood and also stretched. "I had a feeling you would come, so I thought I would wait," he said by way of explanation.

"I see," replied Naruto, grinning. "Must be psychic. So, do these psychic powers tell you what I would want to do once I caught up to you?" His frustration, anger and stress of the last few days had melted whilst he ran, allowing him to regain his sense of calm and internal equilibrium. Sasuke moved closer, his own hair mussed from running the track, and tugged Naruto's shirt to bring them together.

The first kiss was gentle and soft, light as the brush of butterfly wings over skin, then with Sasuke's normal show of passion, he threw himself into another kiss with wild abandon. He nipped at Naruto's lips provoking an immediate response. Soon he found himself backed up against one of the tall tree's that hugged the edge of the track. Naruto thrust his tongue into Sasuke's mouth repeatedly, imitating the movement his lower body would make later on.

Sasuke moaned and broke the kiss, feeling his heart beat in his throat. The kiss made his cheek hurt, but the pleasure made him want to endure the pain. His whole body was warm and tingling, anticipating the pleasure that would soon curl his toes and cause him to throw his head back. Sliding a hand between them, he grinned when he found the blonde's erection straining against his pants. With sure fingers and deft strokes, he soon had Naruto trembling against him, breathy moans in his ear and his pants around his knees.

He shivered and the movement of his hand stilled when he felt the flick of Naruto's tongue against the shell of his ear, before drawing an earlobe into his mouth. Sasuke's erection throbbed and he bit his lip and hummed with pleasure. He felt two of Naruto's fingers at his mouth and began to suck on them, coating them with as much saliva as he could. Meanwhile, Naruto's other hand began to push at the pants around Sasuke's hips. When they pooled around his feet, Sasuke clumsily stepped out of them, realising that taking his runners off would have made things much easier.

Naruto pushed Sasuke back up against the tree and lifted one of his legs to hold beneath one arm. Removing the saliva coated digits from Sasuke's mouth, he moved them between the raven haired man's parted thighs, searching for the pink star he knew was waiting. Sasuke jerked ever so slightly when Naruto found his anus, and groaned when Naruto began to gently ease in one finger, then the other. He gently fingered Sasuke, stretching the rosebud for what was to come.

"Naruto," Sasuke huffed as Naruto hit the little bundle of nerves causing a wave of pleasure. Withdrawing his fingers, he placed his cockhead, dribbling with pre-cum, against Sasuke's opening. "Oh god, I want…I want you in me...mmm," Little sighs dropped from his lips, entrancing Naruto. "Oh come on…"

"Sasu, you sure? With only spit to lubricate you…this might hurt…" Naruto's voice was rough with barely contained lust. He wanted to plunge into that backside, but knowing it might hurt Sasuke slowed him.

"Nnn. Don't care…just need you in me." Sasuke leaned forward and began to suck a hickey onto Naruto's collarbone, causing Naruto's hips to jerk reflexively. As his cock pressed against Sasuke's anus with more force, there was no more control that Naruto could muster. He applied a steady pressure and his cock soon gained entry to the warm canal. They both groaned at the sensation; without proper lubricant, Sasuke was so tight it was almost painful.

Using the hand that wasn't holding Sasuke's leg, he swiped the liquid dripping from Sasuke's weeping cock and coated the exposed part of his erection before continuing to slide in. Slow and steady he began to rock his hips forwards and backwards, each slow stroke hitting Sasuke's prostate and making him shiver with pleasure.

Suddenly there was the crackle of twigs being broken underfoot, and both men realised that someone was coming up the path. Naruto lifted Sasuke, still inside him, and swung them both behind the tree and into its deeper shadows. Given that it was close to nine thirty at night there was a good chance that they wouldn't be discovered in the dark.

Voices that they recognised floated up the path. It was Konohamaru, a teenage boy who lived a couple of houses down from Naruto and Sasuke, jogging up the trail with his girlfriend Moegi.

"…you _sure_ it's safe to run this trail at night, Konohamaru? I mean, we could have run this trail tomorrow morning instead," Moegi complained as they came over the crest of the hill.

"Look, I saw Naruto leave this way on a jog before, and if I want to be a cop like him, following his training schedule is a good start, right? Besides, what do you think could happen up here? It's a really safe neighbourhood," replied Konohamaru stubbornly.

"Well, I'm just saying," retorted Moegi indignantly, as they ran further up the trail, passing them by. "There _could_ be a couple of weird guys hiding in the trees and we'd never know!" At that, Naruto struggled to suppress his mirth, biting his lip and shaking with silent laughter. His laughter made him slide deeper into Sasuke, who inhaled sharply and bit down on Naruto's collarbone.

They both suddenly lost interest in the passersby, as Naruto resumed his slow, intense pace, thrusting into Sasuke. Both were now so turned on, knowing that there were people close enough to discover them, that it took just a few more vigorous thrusts before Sasuke could hold on no more, spurting his seed into a handkerchief that Naruto had had the presence of mind to pass him. As Sasuke's muscles contracted, he tightened around Naruto, who moaned and followed suit, releasing his hot seed inside Sasuke's ass.

Slumping together against the tree, they both caught their breath before speaking.

"That was-" started Sasuke.

"Hilarious!"

"-potentially very embarrassing, was more what I was thinking," finished Sasuke, with a dry grin as he started to yank his pants back on over his shoes. "And to think he admires you enough to try and follow your training schedule."

Naruto grinned. It was nice to know he was admired. Basically, he was an official role model, though he had doubts that this sort of behaviour fit in with actual role model behaviour.

When they were both fully clothed, they began the twenty minute walk back home. Sasuke grimaced, remembering why he hated to have sex when not near a shower or bath. To distract himself, he asked something he'd been waiting all afternoon to ask.

"Did Minato say _Sai_ was on the team?"

"Mm, yes, though I found out today that you going with Minato wasn't part of the plan. What Sai had wanted to do was get you to drop him at home and steal your mobile, thus convincing me when they called from your phone that you went with them. But when that failed," Naruto shrugged, "Minato just figured it would be easier to try getting you to go with him for real than formulate a better plan." Glancing at Sasuke, who was staring intently at his feet, Naruto added, "Sai said to tell you he really does consider you a friend, but you are welcome to revise the relationship and discuss it with him next Tuesday."

Eventually getting sick of thinking about Sai, Sasuke looked up and realised the street was coming into view. "Hn. Well, I'll deal with it on Tuesday then. Now what I really want is a hot shower and-"

"Heh. I'm sure I can help make it a very hot shower," interrupted Naruto, winking suggestively. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but couldn't help smiling. A night of hot showers, hot sex and good sleep would do both of them a world of good, provided it didn't hurt his cheek. Naruto was surprised when instead of complaining about how Naruto was planning to interrupt his shower, Sasuke reached over to grab his hand and tug him towards home at a faster pace.

"In that case, if you want to 'come' with me, you'd better hurry it up, because I want out of these clothes." Sasuke smirked when he felt Naruto stumble before quickening the pace. Looks like it's going to be a good night, he thought to himself.

x-x-x-x-x

A/N: Hey all,

It's been too long (_) You most definitely have my apologies for that; things have been hectic for me – Christmas is almost here, I've had jury duty, lots of family and friend commitments, and last but not least, a new puppy. Drowned myself in a bit of Jeremy Messersmith and finally finished writing this chapter, also working on a couple of other things as well (^_~)

Sooo…did you enjoy this chapter? I really hope so (^_^) I'd love to quickly say thank you to those who comment each chapter, you make my day knowing you've taken the time to give me feedback. My thanks to FlightlessBird (nice username ;) ) for letting me use her candy line (Kiba says it).

I hope everyone is having a wonderful, happy and safe holiday season!

Please take the time to review if you can (^_^)v

~dusk. xo


	6. All I Want For Christmas Special Extra

**Description:** This is a Christmas Special written for the Finding More/More Than Words world

**Pairing/s:** NaruSasu

**Warnings:** Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer:** The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make a profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Note: This is set in the same year as Finding More – it's the story of their first Christmas together.

All I Want For Christmas

Sasuke lay on the couch staring at the television, bored out of his mind. School was over, Christmas was one week away and Naruto still had to work, so that left Sasuke at a loose end. What to do? He flipped open his cell phone to check the time. It was only 4.30pm. Argh. Still another two and a half hours 'til Naruto came home. Damn him for working more hours over Christmas.

Finally deciding that he could not possibly endure one more Christmas movie – and he really didn't understand the hype about the holiday – he grabbed the keys to the car he'd bought in November and headed off, no set destination in mind. Before he even realised it, he'd driven himself to Gaara and Neji's new apartment. Shrugging, he thought, why not? He felt like company, and they were his friends.

Having been friends for years now, Gaara, Neji and Sasuke rarely bothered knocking before entering each other's houses, so as usual, Sasuke let himself in through the unlocked front door and grabbed a can of soda from the fridge. He flumped down onto the couch and was about to call out a greeting when he heard what he thought sound like…a moan? Sitting up and listening hard, Sasuke rather quickly determined that it _was_ a moan that he'd heard and that it had come from the bedroom.

Remembering rather belatedly that Gaara and Neji had recently come out as a couple, Sasuke's cheeks flushed as the pleasured sighs and moans from the bedroom increased in both volume and length. Figuring that sneaking back out would be the best option, he stood and tiptoed across the living room. One of his friends grunted, then there was a final loud moan. Distracted by the noise, Sasuke abruptly found himself tripping over the kitchen bin, metal lid clanging noisily to the ground. There was a moment of pure silence from both rooms before Sasuke scrambled to get up.

Gaara came around the corner, water droplets on his skin, wet hair clinging to his scalp and a towel wrapped around his waist. Sasuke had a moment to think, Oh, not the bedroom…it was the bathroom, before he felt his cheeks turn a darker shade of red.

Gaara, completely unfazed, called out, "Nej, don't worry about finding the baseball bat. It was only Sasuke tripping over the bin." A moment later, Neji appeared in the doorway, towelling dry his long, dark hair, a lavender silk bathrobe fastened about his body.

"Hey, Sasuke," he said, as unfazed as Gaara. "Wasn't expecting to see you today."

Sasuke cleared his throat and regained his voice, managing to sound like he hadn't just walked in on an intimate moment. "Hey, guys. Uh, I was bored since Naruto's working more hours over the Christmas period. I wasn't actually planning to come by, but I was driving around and was in the area… Ummm, you guys ever consider locking the front door before you…?" He trailed off, hoping they would understand.

Gaara smiled dryly. "Well, other than you, there is no one else who would walk into the apartment without knocking or ringing the bell. Not that Neji and I think you should knock, _we_ don't care if you hear us, as long as you don't come in and interrupt." Neji hid a smile when Sasuke rolled his eyes, an indication of his thoughts about listening in on their love-making.

Neji threw the damp towel over the back of a chair to dry. Grabbing a pen off of the table, he flicked his hair into a quick, messy bun and pinned it in place using the writing utensil. Turning to Gaara, they shared one of those couple moments where all communication was made with the eyes. "Hey, Sasuke? Want to go out for dinner with Gaara and I later? If you want, you can call Naruto and he can meet up with us?"

Sasuke perked up at the thought of spending some time out with Naruto. Lately, working the extra hours at work had left little time for Naruto to spend with Sasuke. "Yeah, sure. It'll be great to get away from the Christmas movies. I hate this holiday…a chubby old man in a red suit with flying reindeer dropping gifts for kids everywhere. How is that exciting?" He dialled the private line for the CPC room and hit call.

"Hellooo…?" That one word was infused with boredom.

"Er, hey, Shikamaru," said Sasuke, recognising the voice. "I was wondering if you could put me through to Naruto? He said to call here first while he was working, and to not use his cell number when he was working."

"Ah, losing track of the idiot?" Shikamaru replied, flipping through the day's schedule. "Ah, Sasuke, he's not actually rostered on today. Are you sure he said he was working?"

Sasuke gave a weak chuckle. "Sorry, must be my mistake, I'm not really familiar with his Christmas work schedule…" His heart was sinking as Shikamaru replied.

"I just checked, and his schedule is pretty much the same over Christmas. The only difference is that he's traded some of his day shifts leading up to Christmas for night shifts. You can probably catch him at the ma-" Shikamaru broke off and suddenly swore. "Got to go, Sasuke, the computer system has a glitch and I don't want anyone else to screw around with it, since they'll just make it worse. I'll probably see you at Sakura's New Year's Eve party. See ya." Without waiting for a response he hung up and ran off.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was left feeling pissed off and confused. If he hadn't been working extra hours and was just doing night shift instead, then where the hell had Naruto been over the last few weeks? Dialling Naruto's cell number, Sasuke thought about what comment would best convey his displeasure. There was a beep indicating that the phone had been answered and just as Sasuke opened his mouth to growl at Naruto, he had to force it closed as a woman's voice came on the line.

"Hello, Naruto Uzumaki's phone. Can I ask whose calling?" She had a cheerful voice.

In the background he heard a door shut, and then Naruto's voice. "Oi, oi! Haku, who said you could answer my phone?"

Haku's voice was muffled, as if covering the receiver with her hand. "Ah…I thought it could be important? Oh, Naru, I left your clothes folded by the shower for you. I'll shower after you. I'm going to nap since I'm so worn out. We had a big day today. Oh, and I'll tell the person on the line that they should call you back later." Her voice became clear once again. "Ah, I'm sorry, call back later. He doesn't want me answering his phone…" Before he could respond, she, like Shikamaru, hung up without waiting for a response.

Grinding his teeth together, Sasuke stood and excused himself from Neji and Gaara's dinner invitation. No longer in the mood for company, he drove home and crawled into bed to sulk. It was only five-thirty in the afternoon, but soon the thoughts of infidelity rolling around in his head gave way to sleep and he dozed uneasily. He heard the light in the bathroom click on, but refused to acknowledge Naruto's presence. One eye opened, and he blearily registered that it was 7pm. Closing it firmly, he resumed his fitful rest.

He must have eventually settled into a deeper more peaceful rest, and awoke once more around 11pm when Naruto crawled into the double bed beside him. Hearing the change in Sasuke's breathing, Naruto whispered into the darkness, "Are you okay…? You've been asleep all afternoon and evening. You haven't gotten sick have you?"

Sasuke rolled away from Naruto, let loose a sigh and settled down into the pillows, allowing the silence to stand between them. Naruto waited a moment, but it became clear that Sasuke was in a foul mood and didn't want to talk, so he exhaled in exasperation and rolled onto his side, falling into his own untroubled sleep within minutes.

x-x-x-x-x

When Naruto left for his morning jog, Sasuke quickly climbed out of bed and got fully dressed. Running downstairs, he threw his cell phone under the passenger seat of Naruto's car before disappearing upstairs and covering his clothed body with blankets and pretending to be asleep. As he was not normally a morning person, Naruto was careful not to make much noise when he returned home and got ready to leave.

Sasuke heard the car start and got out of bed. Wherever Naruto was going, it wasn't to work since he apparently didn't have extra shifts. Sasuke waited forty-five minutes before turning on his laptop and using the internet to trace his cell phone's GPS. He was puzzled when it indicated that Naruto, or at least his car, was at the mall. There was one way to find out where Naruto was, and so Sasuke headed over to the mall in his own car, teeth gritted.

Arriving at the mall, his irritation grew as he struggled to find a car park, with almost all the good spaces taken by last minute Christmas shoppers. When he spotted a little old lady shuffling towards a large brown car, he followed behind her, fingers tapping on the steering wheel a signal of his impatience.

She began to back out of the space, moving at a snail's pace, checking her mirrors repeatedly. Sasuke ground his teeth together and gave the lady a short, sharp beep with his horn, just to get her moving. His jaw dropped when the little old lady turned to him, her face scrunched up in a pissed off glare, and flipped him the bird. Finally, _finally_, she pulled out and drove off, and Sasuke squeezed into the space before anyone could try and steal it.

Once he was inside, he was at a loss as to where to start looking. He began to walk through the mall slowly trying to spot his boyfriend. He winced when he saw the gaudy baubles and tinsel decorating various stores. After an hour of walking store to store with no luck, Sasuke dropped into a chair at the upstairs food court. Staring over the balcony, he saw one of the Santa's workshops set up, where the kids go to have their photos taken. The seat was empty, but the line was huge.

What a waste of money, he thought. Paying for a photo of yourself or your kids with some random stranger dressed up as- He squinted when the door to Santa's workshop opened. Santa stepped out, waving to the kids, his smile hidden by the white, bushy beard. His eyebrows went up in surprise. He thought he recognised that build. Was Naruto playing Santa?

Going down the nearest escalator, Sasuke peered over the women and children trying to catch a glimpse of Santa, but quickly found that it was too crowded to get close. Hit by inspiration, Sasuke sidled around to the back of the Santa's workshop, and spotting a door, let himself in. Glancing around, he could see that this was clearly where the actors playing Santa and elves showered, changed and rested.

He spotted a pile of familiar clothes on the ground – Naruto's clothes – and suddenly what the woman had said on the phone made sense. Relief flooded Sasuke. Naruto wasn't cheating on him. A deep cough interrupted his thoughts and his short lived relief. He spun to find a tall, muscled, slightly scary looking man whose name tag read _Zabuza_. He was dressed in some ridiculous costume that was meant to make him look like one of Santa's helpers (and failed dismally).

"What're you doin' back here? This ain't no place for the general public. You wanna meet Santa, you get in line." The man had a deep voice, and talked quickly. His stared at Sasuke expectantly.

"Ah…I…I didn't come for a photo…Naruto…er, that is, I came because-" Sasuke didn't quite know how to explain why he was in this room, but felt relieved once again when understanding bloomed in Zabuza's eyes. The relief disappeared and was replaced by dread when Zabuza responded.

"Oh, you're the new elf that Naruto as'ed for. Sorry 'bout that. You'd be surprised at the number of moms who sneak back here to try an' meet Santa. Haku'll be grateful t' get some help; he's been the only elf on duty for the last two days."

Turning and rummaging through a box, Zabuza yanked out a pair of leggings that were covered in horizontal red and white stripes, a deep green tunic with gold buttons that would hit mid thigh, a black belt to go around the waist and a red and green elf hat, complete with red pompom. Digging through a second and third drawer, he produced a pair of prosthetic pointed tips that were clearly designed to give an elfin look to the ears and last, but not least, a pair of green velvet shoes, complete with pointy, curled up toes.

Sasuke stared at the costume, horrified. Clearly this man had mistaken him for someone else, but Sasuke couldn't think of a way to back out of the situation without causing is scene. Images of being tossed out of the workshop in front of all the women and their children and, worst of all, Naruto flashed through his brain, and he quickly grabbed the uniform from Zabuza and went into the little bathroom to change.

x-x-x-x-x

Looking in the mirror almost made Sasuke want to cry. I've sunk so low, he thought. It wasn't that he looked bad, in fact, the clothes actually _suited_ him. It was more the fact that he looked cute. _Cute_ was not something that any Uchiha male had ever desired to appear. He shuddered, and decided to tell Zabuza it wasn't his deal after all.

Entering the little den, Zabuza took one look at Sasuke and grinned. "You turned out good. Tell Haku he can have a half hour break 'nd then youse can work it together." Before Sasuke could open his mouth to argue, Zabuza opened the little workshop door and gave Sasuke a shove that sent him stumbling through it.

Shell shocked, Sasuke gaped at the crowd before him, managing to remain unnoticed for all of three seconds. A little boy of maybe three clutched at his mother's skirt, tugging and pointing to the newly emerged elf. Eyes darting over to where the guy – guy! – known as Haku was handing out candy canes, Sasuke followed his lead, grabbing one of the baskets near the door. Edging over to Haku, he lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

Haku's mouth made a little O of surprise and Sasuke was stunned. Not only did the guy sound feminine on the phone, his decidedly androgynous looks made it hard to tell that he was physically a guy too. He was dressed in exactly the same uniform as Sasuke, except for the fact that his was red and his long, black hair hung in a long braid down his back. "I thought they were sending Tobi out this afternoon…who are you?"

"Ahhh…I'm Sasuke," Sasuke then paused, unsure of what to tell Haku. Eventually deciding that the truth might be best, he leaned down and whispered in Haku's ear, "I'm Naruto's boyfriend. I didn't know he was out doing this…so I came to find out where he'd been disappearing to and that guy found me in the change room and mistook me for the extra elf. Oh, and Zabuza said you can have a half hour break."

Haku grinned. "Ah. You thought he was cheating? I-" Haku realised that he was neglecting the kids and grabbed a few more candy canes to pass out. "I won't take the break. In forty-five or so minutes, the crowd will die down – lunchtime for the little guys – and Naru will have to do a walkthrough of the mall while we take a small break and set up a new lot of camera equipment. Until then, just hand out these lollies to the kids at the back of the crowd." Haku passed him a second basket and sent him up the back.

Just as Haku had predicted, the crowd of mothers and children dispersed over the following hour, and working at the back of the crowd, Sasuke remained unspotted by Naruto, who soon left to do his walkthrough.

Haku, experienced at it, finished setting up the cameras and invited Sasuke back into the workshop. Opening a fully stocked mini-fridge, he grabbed two bottles of chilled water and tossed one to Sasuke, who was seated on the couch.

Haku gave another warm smile, and Sasuke realised this guy really fit the definition of beautiful. "First off, I got to tell you, you were lucky I was elf on duty today. Had you said that you were Naru's boyfriend to Tobi he would have probably pointed it out to all those in the surrounding area – he's not friends with Naru – whereas I'm dating Zabuza, who you met earlier, and being Naru's…friend…I know he's dating you, so I don't feel as shocked. Anyway, moving on. So, you thought Naruto, _this_ Naruto, was cheating on you? For real?"

Sasuke instantly felt defensive. "Well, he told me he was working more hours, then one of his friends tells me he's not. Then I call his cell phone and someone I believed was a woman picked up…and talked about him showering!" He threw a glare at Haku. "Then I find that where he really heads is to the mall, after letting me think it was work. I didn't know what to think."

"Hummm. I guess I can understand why you thought that way…but really, if you're the Sasuke he's been droning on and on about for the last few weeks, I don't know how you could possibly think he'd do that. I mean, all he talks about is you – 'Sasuke's so smart; Sasuke's so sexy; Sasuke is going to be a lawyer; Sasuke did the cutest thing in his sleep last night'. I swear I feel like I know you even though we are just meeting."

Sasuke was stunned. Naruto had been talking about him? "Well, he's never mentioned you before…even though you said you're friends."

Haku shrugged. "Well, Naru doesn't really talk about the foster home we were in as kids, understandably so. We were foster siblings for five years, before DOCS* pulled us out and sent us to new homes. Besides that, Zabu and I only live here for about two months of the year, which are December and January, and then we move on. I've been doing this Christmas gig for six years, and for five out of those six years, Naru's been playing Santa. This is how we catch up, and it's kind of something we enjoy. He mentioned you weren't big on Christmas…maybe he thought you'd look down on him for doing this?"

Sasuke felt a surge of regret. That was certainly true, he had been complaining about Christmas a lot. On top of that, this guy wasn't just a friend of Naruto's, it was his foster brother, no matter how you looked at it. What a bad impression to make, acting like there was even a ounce of a chance that Naruto was cheating on him. "I…well. Maybe you're right. Crap. Poor Naruto, we've only been dating for five months and I've stuffed up and completely rained on his parade. How am I going to make up for it?" Sasuke put his face in his hands and Haku could see the regret written across the young man's face.

"Now, now. You're only eighteen. You made a mistake, got insecure and jealous, which shows he's someone important to you. I think Naru will, in all probability, be pleased. And if you want to make up for it, well, I bet Naru's never seen you dressed as a cute li'l elf before! Come sit over here." Haku patted a stool by a mirror. Sasuke sat in front of him, and Haku pulled a little make-up kit towards him. He added the lightest touch of eyeliner and mascara to Sasuke's eyes and the merest swipe of pink blusher.

Dreading looking in the mirror, for he was sure he would be looking like a badly made-up drag queen, Sasuke turned. He was astonished. You couldn't even tell he was wearing any make-up at all, and yet his features were emphasised in a most lovely way. Now the attention was drawn to his lovely, big dark eyes framed by long, black lashes. And the blush added to the illusion of his being a shy elf, one that looked like he was blushing at the attention he was receiving.

"See? You'll knock him flat on his back when he see's you," Haku said with a smile.

"Where on earth did you learn to do make-up?" Sasuke said as he leaned closer to the mirror to examine the tastefully added make-up.

"Oh, I didn't mention it before. Zabu and I work in a circus. We are part of the best ever knife act. But like I said, we are here for December and January every year since that's when we like to take a break from circus life. Plus Zabu gets good pay to put together and manage the Santa's workshop every Christmas. Anyway, it's time to get back out there and you can surprise Naru!" Haku's enthusiasm made Sasuke smile.

Even though he would feel embarrassed, he felt that this would at least make up for some of his complaining about a holiday he hadn't realised was actually important to Naruto. Standing and grabbing another basket of candy canes, Sasuke followed Haku back into the crowd.

x-x-x-x-x

Naruto waved and grinned, feeling cheerful as he made his way over to the Santa picture taking thrown. It hadn't gotten busy again yet but in an hour and a half there would be hundreds of little kids lining up to tell Santa their wishes and dreams. A little girl and her brother were guided up the steps by Haku, and Naruto saw that there was another elf-actor readying the next child. He was glad that they had finally sent out another helper; the mall had become more hectic over the last four days. Little did he know that it was because many mothers had heard rumours of a certain sexy Santa that was at _this_ mall.

He smiled and laughed for the camera, tickling the shy little girl and causing her to giggle. After telling both children that they had been good and could go with his helper and pick a toy, he turned to get ready for the next child. Which was when he realised that the new helper was Sasuke. Sasuke dressed as an elf. Sasuke looking extremely sexy as said elf. The three little boys stood in front of Santa, waiting patiently as their mother prayed that they wouldn't misbehave.

Sasuke, holding back a grin, gave a little cough that shocked Naruto into movement. "Ah, come, come, boys," he rumbled, almost sounding too jolly. "What do you want for Christmas this year?"

"A twuck!"

"A din-a-sowr!"

"A doggie, pwease!"

Naruto was having trouble focusing on their Christmas wishes with Sasuke so close, looking so delicious. He finished up the children's picture and glanced at the people waiting. There was only one more, and he quickly gestured to Haku to put the '_Santa's gone out to feed the reindeer!_' sign up as soon as he finished picture taking with this last child.

Ten almost unbearable minutes later, Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the wrist, and all but dragged him into the workshop. Yanking off, the hat, wig, beard and glasses as well as taking out the pillow used to create a Santa belly, Naruto spun to face Sasuke, sputtering.

"Why are-? What are you-? Last night you were-? You look _so_-!" The last words were infused with desire.

Sasuke gave a little sigh. "I'm sorry about last night, Naruto. I, uh, I kinda thought you were cheating on me when I found out you weren't working extra hours and when a woman named Haku – clearly I was wrong – answered your phone and talked about needing to sleep while you showered, especially since I thought you didn't swing that way. The idea of a girl good enough to get you to change teams, god, I-I got jealous and decided to follow you." He looked away, embarrassed.

"You were jealous? Aw, that's so cute, Sasuke! I-" Sasuke levelled a glare at him when he heard the word 'cute'. "I mean, it's so handsome and manly," rephrased Naruto, suppressed laughter in his voice. "But really, you have nothing to worry about…I just… Well, you seemed to dislike Christmas so much, and I thought you would be happier thinking I was at work rather than wasting my time here. I like to do the Santa thing 'cause when we were with…with that first set of foster parents, the only good times we had were at Christmas when for five minutes, someone cared about our wishes and dreams and told us we were good children."

Naruto looked a little wistful. "Then when I was older, my mum and dad used to make a big day of it, coming to see Santa and the like, trying to make it special for us foster kids."

Sasuke hugged him. "I understand. I'm sorry." They remained like that for a moment before Sasuke pulled back. "Ummm, why are we taking a break now? You only just came back from your tour of the mall." Sasuke was amazed to see Naruto's cheeks turn red.

"That's because seeing you dressed like that, er, well let's just say it's inappropriate for kids to sit on Santa's knee right now. I only just managed to get that last kid off of my lap before I got hard just from looking at you in costume and even then I had to force myself to think of my parents having sex to keep from embarrassing myself." He shuddered.

"Ah," Sasuke said grinning and moving closer to the semi-flustered blonde. "Well, we can't have Santa exposing his indecent side to the children now, can we?" He drew Naruto into the little bathroom and pushed him back to lean against the basin. Tugging firmly, he made Naruto pull off the loosely fitting Santa jacket, leaving Naruto nothing but in the red velvet pants and Santa boots. Crouching in front of the blonde, his black haired boyfriend slowly, slowly undid the knot that was holding up the red pants.

The waist went slack, and Sasuke grinned. "Somehow, I never pictured Santa as a boxer briefs kinda guy." Then said briefs were yanked down to reveal Naruto's problem. Pink, firm flesh stood hard and proud against the front of his body, and Sasuke heard a slight sigh depart Naruto's lips as he fisted the flesh, lightly rubbing. While stroking Naruto's cock, Sasuke lent in and sucked a bright, red hickey against the flesh of Naruto's inner thigh. "There, now that's a mark so that Mrs Claus doesn't mistake you for hers."

Naruto grinned, but the grin faded and was replaced with a look of pure lust as he watched Sasuke suck his erect cock into his mouth. He sucked Naruto's length slowly, drawing it deeper and deeper into his mouth. Feeling it hit the back of his throat, he paused before doing something he'd wanted to try for a while, fighting his gag reflex as he slid Naruto into his throat. Naruto let out a moan of ecstasy. The sensation of Sasuke's throat contracting was unbelievable.

Sasuke breathed carefully through his nose and held Naruto there for as long as he could, wanting to watch the pleasure cross Naruto's face for as long as possible. Finally, eyes watering and throat burning, his body could stand it no more, and he pulled away coughing, drool dripping from Naruto's length.

Naruto reached down and forced Sasuke to stand as he yanked on the green elf tunic. Fingers twined in Sasuke's hair, Sasuke let loose a startled cry as Naruto attacked his mouth, using his tongue like a weapon. Sasuke relaxed into the fiery kiss and was left dazed and breathless when Naruto pulled away.

"Sasuke…I swear that was possibly…the _sexiest_ thing I've ever seen…those big, dark eyes filled with tears and your mouth stretched around my cock," Naruto's voice was rough, and the shiver that Sasuke felt through Naruto's body was more than enough to convince him that he wanted to try doing that again sometime.

Reaching under the sink, Naruto let his hand blindly wander until it hit what he was looking for. He pulled out a mini-packet of lube and a pack of condoms. Sasuke was taken aback. "Er, you keep those around just in case I discovered you were here and came over for a booty call?"

Grinning, Naruto replied, "No…but I know Haku and Zabuza would never want to make a mess of the costumes. In fact they will kill us if we mess up the costumes. Zabuza said he once walked in on Santa 'kissing Mommy underneath some mistletoe' and leaving 'unwanted bodily fluids' on the costumes. Since then, he's kept this cupboard stocked for just such…emergencies. Now, undress for me, little helper."

Sasuke felt hot and alive as he slid off the elfin leggings and shoes. When he turned to face Naruto, he saw that Naruto had already slid on one of the condoms and reached across to slide one onto Sasuke's erection as he stole another kiss. He roughly lifted Sasuke to sit on the edge of the basin, impatiently coating his cock with the lubricant from the little sachet. After working one finger coated with lube into Sasuke's tight passage, he shifted so that one of Sasuke's legs was draped over his shoulder.

Sasuke moaned and then bit his lip as Naruto entered him. He was tight, but the lubricant did its job, and Naruto slid into the slippery passage without much difficulty. Sasuke gasped and panted as the length of Naruto grazed over that spot inside him that made him tingle. Something about the angle took Naruto deeper than normal, and little pleasure sounds dropped from Sasuke's lips, one after another as he began to feel the delicious beginnings of climax.

Naruto increased the pace of the thrust, a damp sweat on his brow, and finally the wave of pleasure broke over Sasuke. Throwing an arm across his mouth, he muffled his shout of pleasure and contracted around Naruto, pushing him into the abyss of pleasure too. Naruto let out a low groan, pumping his hips forward a couple more times before collapsing on top of his boyfriend. They lay together panting for a moment, spent, before Naruto glanced at his watch and groaned.

"We've been gone for fifteen minutes," he said, sighing. "The longest Santa can be gone is twenty minutes, so we need to get dressed and get back out there." They both got up and began to collect their clothes, Sasuke moving somewhat gingerly. After a quick clean up and re-costuming themselves, they went back out and there was a cheer from the amassed group of children and mothers.

Sasuke blushed and wondered what the parents would think if they knew that what they had really just cheered for was Santa's sexual prowess. A knowing wink from Haku caused Sasuke to duck his head to hide his blushing cheeks before pulling himself together and handing out the candy canes. Though his back was a little stiff and he could feel a bruise forming where the basin had been digging into his flesh, Sasuke remained upbeat. The longer he watched the children, the more he came to understand why Naruto enjoyed Christmas.

Naruto loved to see the joy in others. The kids that lined up were so innocent and pure in their enjoyment of Christmas and the magic of Santa, it was sweet and touching to watch. Looking back, Sasuke recalled a memory of his own parents bringing him to the shopping mall Santa for photos and he felt a bittersweet nostalgia settle over him as he remembered how magical it had all seemed, the waiting to crawl onto Santa's lap, the gifts and the Christmas meal.

How he could ever have forgotten those magical days of his childhood seemed bizarre. Watching Naruto's eyes sparkle as he told the little girl that if she was good, she might just get the doll house she was wishing for, Sasuke resolved to make more of an effort to enjoy Christmas from now on. Heck, he might even come play one of Santa's helper elves every year.

x-x-x-x-x

It was the twenty-fourth of December and Naruto and Sasuke had finished their time dressing up in costumes and play Santa and his elves for the year. It had been a couple of hours since the mall closed and inside the little workshop, Zabuza, Haku, Naruto and Sasuke sat around sharing a few drinks; though Sasuke was only drinking soda since he was the designated driver for himself and Naruto tonight.

"We'll be packin' this rig up tonight 'nd be on official holiday now, 'til the end of Janu'ry," said Zabuza at his normal quickly paced speech patterns. He sipped at his can of beer before speaking again. "You be joinin' us again next year, Sasuke?"

"Uh, actually, yeah, I was thinking that I wouldn't mind doing this again," Sasuke replied, much to Naruto's surprise. He had thought Sasuke had only finished out the week because Tobi had been sent to a different mall after they cancelled on him and there was no one else to come back and play helper. He contemplated this new development and discovered that it made him feel oddly content knowing that he and his lover would share this next year too.

Haku grinned when he read the thoughts passing over Naruto's face. He was glad to see that Naruto was finally with someone who could make him smile that way. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out two tickets. "Hey, this is mine and Zabuza's Christmas present for you guys. Our circus should be playing over this way next June and we'd love it if you guys came to see the show, and maybe stuck around to catch up later on."

Naruto grinned, nodding. "Sure we'll come. It'll be great to catch up. Plus, those costumes you design are always _awesome_, Haku. I'm sure Sasuke will be impressed." Sasuke felt a spurt of jealously and he squashed it ruthlessly. This man was Naruto's foster brother, someone who had also been kind to Sasuke. There was absolutely no reason to get jealous when Naruto praised him. Well, that's what he told himself.

Naruto pulled a little card out of his wallet. "I'm sorry I couldn't get you something better for Christmas, but if you go to this store and tell them you're the person Naruto Uzumaki sent, you'll find that you have $700 of store credit to buy whatever material you like for this year's costumes." Haku grinned broadly, thanking Naruto and tucking the card safely away for later.

"You know," said Naruto, "next time we see you, Sasuke will be at university studying biomed and law? He's so smart that he was offered a position in their course before everyone else's offers came out studying a double major. He's going to make something of himself and have a university education, probably end up bringing in the big bucks. Impressive, right?" Naruto puffed up boastfully, proud of the guy he could introduce as his boyfriend to what was likely his only family.

When that realisation suddenly clicked, Sasuke was a strange mix of proud and ashamed. Proud that Naruto was proud of him and happy to introduce him to Haku. Ashamed that he had been jealous and worried about Naruto cheating on him. Sasuke was broken out of his thoughts when he heard his name.

"What do you say, Zabuza? Can I buy the elf costume that Sasuke was wearing for keeps? He looks so bloody sexy, and even if he won't wear it at home, Halloween-" Naruto yelped as an empty soda can hit his head and he turned to face a furious and embarrassed Sasuke.

"What the heck do you mean even if I won't wear it at home? Of _course_ I won't wear it at home, much less in public," said Sasuke with a glare. Naruto grinned back at him.

"You have to wear it. At least for Halloween? Next time, you can pick the Halloween costumes for us. Please? Sasuke, have you looked in the mirror when you wear that costume? And the things those leggings do for your ass make me get ha-" Naruto let loose another yell as Sasuke jumped on him, covering Naruto's mouth with his hand.

"Haku, Zabuza, I think Naruto's had too much to drink and that we should be heading off now. Feel free to drop by before you leave at the end of January." Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm and yanked him off the couch and towards the door. "Oh, and merry Christmas."

Zabuza merely raised a hand of farewell, while Haku smiled and waved from the door of the workshop as Sasuke dragged Naruto towards the exit of the mall. Sasuke frowned at the cheerful look on Naruto's face and decided that Naruto needed to sleep of the effects of the alcohol when they got home.

x-x-x-x-x

Naruto groaned when the curtains opened in the morning, his head pounding when the light hit his tightly shut eyes. "God, Sasuke, shut them."

There was some respite as Sasuke shut them half way before crawling back into bed with Naruto. "Happy Christmas," he whispered Naruto's ear, startling the blonde into wakefulness. Naruto grinned and relaxed into the pillow.

"Merry Christmas to you too," he replied, the headache subsiding as he tried one of the new herbal pills Sakura had given him to help with alcohol induced headaches. Reaching beside the bed, he pulled out a few carefully wrapped gifts.

On opening them, Sasuke discovered that the gifts had been chosen with care. First editions of some of his favourite classic novels. "Thanks, Naruto. You really didn't have to, especially after giving me this." His hand strayed up to the pendent Naruto had given him for his eighteenth birthday.

Poking around in his own bedside draw, Sasuke eventually turned to Naruto with a small box clasped between his fingers. "Originally, I didn't plan to give you a Christmas gift, since I thought Christmas was a waste of time and that we wouldn't celebrate it. But, after seeing how much joy this whole holiday brings you, I changed my mind and want to give you this. Please don't complain about price or try to say you shouldn't have it; it was my fathers and now it's yours." He pushed the small, velvet box into Naruto's hands.

Naruto pried it open gently and bit his lip. "Sasuke, it's…it's great, I love it." Inside the box sat a thick banded gold ring with a large, square ruby set in the centre of the band. Picking it up, he read the inscription and felt touched. _Sasuke for Naruto, always._ It fit his ring finger perfectly, and he knew that soon, Sasuke would be getting a ring of his own.

Pulling Sasuke onto his lap for a Christmas kiss and wondering whether maybe Sasuke was disappointed with his own Christmas gifts, Naruto asked hesitantly, "Is there anything else I can get you for Christmas? Something special?"

"All I want for Christmas," replied Sasuke, as he planted a few more kisses on Naruto's lips, "is you."

*DOCS – Department of Child Services

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A/N: Hey everyone!

I hope you had/are having a wonderful, safe and happy Christmas, and if you don't celebrate Christmas then I hope you had/are having a wonderful, safe and happy holiday season! This is a chapter I was writing as a Christmas gift to you guys, and now it's belated by a few days as Naru and Sasu took longer to do what I wanted them to do than anticipated xD.

It's not an official part of the FM/MTW storylines…it's more like a Christmas Special, eheh *sweatdrop*.

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed the story of their first Christmas together and yes, Haku and Zabuza may appear in future chapters, though I'm slightly undecided on that. Let me know whether you would like to see some more of them!

Anyway, as always, please, please review if you have time, I love hearing from you guys!

Best wishes for the year to come!

~dusk. xo


	7. Chapter 6

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More

**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu

**Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer**: The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make a profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Sasuke stood in the shower, letting the hot, steamy water pound against his back. His pale skin flushed pink with the heat and his muscles relaxed. Having spent the last fifteen minutes in the same position, finally he gave a groan and forced himself to turn off the taps and exit the shower. Wrapping a towel around his hips, he grabbed a second one, using it to wipe a space clear on the foggy glass of the mirror, before beginning to towel his hair dry.

Peering at his reflection, he used a finger to gently probe his still bruised cheek. No longer a deep purplish-black, three weeks on, it was now an array of greens and yellows. Though chewing was still uncomfortable, it was no longer really painful. More than anything, what Sasuke really hated was the fact that the bruise was physical evidence of his bad decision, and it was there for everyone to see.

Finishing in the bathroom, he got changed into a pair of black denim jeans and a grey t-shirt, throwing one of Naruto's large black jumpers over the top. A quick glance at the clock on his way through the bedroom prompted him to get a move on as he realised that he might end up late.

Driving into the university parking lot, he spotted a familiar sleek black car. His heart sped up as he realised that today would be his first time seeing Sai since everything had come to pass, as Sai had missed the past three weeks of classes. He still hadn't decided whether or not Sai was genuine in trying to befriend him. Making his way over to his usual classroom, Sasuke spotted Sai across the room and silently crossed to sit next to him.

The lesson began right on time, and so there was no chance to talk until afterwards. The room emptied and still Sasuke and Sai sat in silence. Finally it was Sasuke who spoke. "So, was your car really keyed, or was it simply an excuse to borrow mine?"

"An excuse. Though I have to admit, you _giving_ me your car was not part of the plan. According to all of the data accumulated on your personality, you are usually most reserved in you relationships with your peers. It was anticipated that you might offer me a lift home, in which case I was to swipe your mobile phone, but since you gave me your car the plans changed. I didn't know that they were planning to take you back to the hotel."

"Hn." Sasuke pondered this statement and its sincerity. Rolling his eyes, he came to the conclusion that mending this 'friendship' would be easier than starting a new one. Plus, he thought, it might give him inside information on what was happening with Naruto. "Coffee?"

"Sure. Just let me drop my books off at my car first." Sasuke gave a nod and headed for his own car, dropping his books in the backseat. Making his way across to Sai's car, he had a hard time keeping the smirk off of his face as he observed Sai's perplexed and slightly peeved expression.

He stood beside Sai and they both stared at his car. Keyed into the shiny black paint was 'And where the offense is, let the great axe fall. –William Shakespeare'. Sasuke managed to keep a straight face, though internally he chuckled at his very petty form of revenge. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Sai giving him a suspicious stare.

"'That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind.' –Martin Luther King Jr.,*" murmured Sai in an attempt to provoke Sasuke. He was not disappointed; Sasuke replied almost instantly.

"'Our sense of revenge is as exact as our mathematical faculty, and until both of the equations are satisfied we cannot get over the sense of something left undone.' –Inazo Nitobe." Sasuke gave Sai a challenging stare, and there was a moment of silence.

Then, with a shrug and a half smile, Sai said, "Touché."

With nothing left to say about the matter, Sai and Sasuke headed to the campus café in a comfortable silence.

x-x-x-x-x

Naruto crossed the small boardroom dedicated to his new taskforce and began to set himself up behind a desk. He'd been here for a few hours already and a glance at the clock on the wall told him that it was getting late. He was filling out some last minute requests for Shizune to sign, and was so absorbed in his task it took him a few minutes to realise that Minato was standing in the doorway. Warily, he sighed.

"There's no reason to sigh like that. I just came to discuss the protocols you plan on establishing for this operation with your people, and informing you of mine," Minato said in a tired tone. Looking closely, Naruto realised that there were bags beneath the older man's eyes. Perhaps he was working harder than Naruto was giving him credit for?

"What do you mean, protocols?" Naruto asked, tone still guarded, but with none of the hostility of their previous one-on-one encounters. Minato ran a hand through his longish blonde hair, a habit that he himself had.

"Well, protocols, as in what to do should certain scenarios arise," there was a brief hesitation before he continued, "I know you aren't thrilled to be forced into working with me and that I tend to…get you riled up. But I take these protocols very seriously as it will ensure the safety of the team as well helping everyone feel more prepared should something go wrong."

Hating to agree, but seeing the wisdom behind this statement, Naruto nodded reluctantly and indicated that Minato should continue.

"First issue is reporting. My suggestion is that all reports are made to you first, then you can provide copies to me." Minato noticed Naruto's look of suspicion, and frowned. "Look, can you stop doubting my abilities? You might not like me, but I am a professional. This team consists mainly of your peers. They trust you, and will be more comfortable reporting to you. My guys are used to reporting to whomever they are told to report to. So. It would just be simpler to run it that way. If it's alright with you, of course."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Naruto replied in a carefully neutral tone, then waited for Minato to continue.

"With regards to our contact, I'd recommend choosing one person to conduct all interactions with him, that way there's less risk to the identities of the rest of the team. I would push for making Yamato the contact, since he has the least amount of connections to people in this city; in fact, I think his family is currently overseas." Naruto mulled that one over. Recently, by pure luck, a man had been discovered almost dead near one of Orochimaru's suspected illegal 'shelters'. The man had long, white hair, some strange tattoos on his face and scars all over his body.

The doctors who had examined him were horrified and had explained to police that there had been extensive experimentation conducted on the man's bones and that there was little hope for his survival beyond the next few years. What made it infinitely worse was that the man appeared to have been subjected to these experiments for a number of years. When he'd regained consciousness and identified himself as Kimimaro, he'd become reluctant to talk to them, almost protective of Orochimaru's operation, and questions had been raised regarding the possibility of Stockholm Syndrome**.

Eventually the man admitted to working with Orochimaru and agreed to be an undercover contact. Naruto had some reservations about this; after all, the man disappeared from Orochimaru's radar for close to two weeks, so surely he'd be suspicious. Kimimaro, however, insisted that due to his current state of illness it was not out of the ordinary for him to be absent for irregular periods of time.

"Hn," said Naruto, choosing to borrow Sasuke's sound. "What story would Yamato be giving to Kimimaro to explain his involvement?"

"We were thinking possibly saying that he has access to more people desperate to cross the border, since that's most likely what will get Orochimaru's attention. Access to more 'subjects'," Minato replied with distaste. "The last thing I would like to lay guidelines for only applies in the event where we need to reveal our police presence.

Our research dictates that upon realising we are there, Orochimaru will respond with heavy violence and make an attempt to escape. You need to make sure your team knows that they are putting their own lives in danger. Should there be a gunfight, no member of the team can take a bullet for another member; they need to remain clear headed because we'll need as many able-bodied people there as possible if it comes to that."

"You're telling me to tell my team that if in trouble, they should expect to receive no support?" Naruto's tone was horrified. As someone who was big on teamwork and taking care of everyone on a team, he felt that what Minato was suggesting was unthinkable.

Minato sighed with irritation. "That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying to tell them that help might not be immediately available should things go wrong. If they are injured, they need to try and shift to a place where it's safe for us to give assistance. This is what it means to be head of a team with a dangerous assignment." Minato picked up his coat from the back of a chair. "I'm off. It's up to you how this team is run, but make no mistake you'll have to think about this." With nothing left to say, he left the room with no farewell.

Naruto sighed and rubbed his temples. He'd never thought about this part of being in charge, of how to handle the danger to his people. He looked at the clock again, and decided it was time to head home himself; the last of the forms could wait until tomorrow.

x-x-x-x-x

It was almost 8.00pm when Naruto finally arrived home. When he walked into the kitchen, he was relieved to see that Sasuke had left his dinner in the oven to stay warm; it felt as if he hadn't eaten in forever. Heading upstairs and down the hallway, he could see a thin strip of light emanating from under the study door. With a light knock he opened the door to find Sasuke surrounded by papers and printouts. Sasuke looked over at him with a distracted smile as greeting.

"This room is somewhat messier than you would usually permit, Sasuke," said Naruto, grinning and leaning against the door frame. His words were true, Sasuke hated leaving his study in a mess.

"Well, this assignment would be okay if it weren't for the fact that there is very little up-to-date research on it. I was hoping to get it done tonight, however I'm not sure that that's possible. I've found a few current articles and now I'm raiding their bibliographies for at least one more, but…" he trailed off, frowning at the mess. Now that it had been pointed out to him, it was going to annoy him endlessly if he didn't tidy up. Sasuke stood and stretched, then began to tidy. "So, how was your day? Minato a pain in the ass?"

"No…well, not exactly. My day wasn't too bad; there was a lot of organising to do for, well, you know. I can't really talk about it, but yeah. Minato gave me a lot to think about with regards to how to protect my team. My friends." Sasuke could see the unhappiness behind those words, the tiredness around Naruto's eyes, and wished he could lessen the stress, but that was the price he paid for working as a policeman.

"Hn. Well, I know you'll do the best you can, and that's all anyone can ask for. Have you eaten dinner yet?" said Sasuke, changing the topic. It wasn't that he minded talking about it, but the fact that ongoing police investigations were pretty much classified, so there was nothing Naruto could say about what had been going on.

"Ah, no. I was about to have a shower and then go downstairs…" Naruto ran a hand tiredly through his blonde locks and Sasuke felt sorry for him.

"Go have a shower and I'll go set up a movie. Then you can come eat and watch a movie with me," said Sasuke as he finished straightening out the room. Naruto gave a nod before heading to their bedroom.

Downstairs, Sasuke flicked on the television and DVD player, looking over the rows of movies. Something funny, easy to follow and didn't need to be payed attention to, he thought. Aha! He eventually spotted the three _Rush Hour_ films that Naruto was a big fan of. Choosing the first movie, he slid the disc into the player and went to grab a couple of bottles of fruit juice and Naruto's dinner, setting them up on the coffee table.

By the time Naruto arrived downstairs, the living room was set up for an evening of relaxation. Sasuke was already sitting cross-legged at the end of the sofa and settled at the other end with his dinner. Twenty minutes later, after he finished eating, Naruto gave a long groan as he stretched out lengthways on the couch, placing his head on Sasuke's lap.

Both men watched silently as Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan's character's tried to outdo each other, until about an hour into the film, Naruto broke the silence. "I don't know what to make of him."

"Hmmm?" Sasuke blinked and looked down into deep blue eyes, his hand resting comfortably on Naruto's shoulder. He'd had a feeling that this would be brought up sooner or later.

Naruto cleared his throat. "Minato. I…don't know what to make of him. I mean, I guess I just always had this idea that when my father gave me up, he regretted it. Meeting Minato is…disappointing. You know, I feel guilty for even thinking these things. I was so lucky. Jiraiya and Tsunade were such brilliant parents, I was loved and taken care of. Yet I still wanted more from Minato, even after avoiding meeting him for years…it's selfish really." The corners of Naruto's mouth tugged down into a frown, looking sad.

"Ah, Naruto…" started Sasuke, though he didn't really know how to comfort the blonde. "I don't think that it's selfish to want him to feel like he missed out on something. He _did_ miss out on something, and there's no way he can ever get it back. You know, I was thinking about this the other day…he may have wanted more from you than he lets on. I mean, he's been trying to contact you for years, long before there was a need for this taskforce. Maybe he saw now as his opportunity and maybe he cares more than he wants to let on."

Naruto lay still, mulling it over. It was possible that Sasuke was right. Suddenly he groaned. "Argh! I don't want to think about this, I just want to relax and not have to think about Minato. Working with him makes me confused, especially when he acts professionally and stops pushing my buttons. Today, rather, this evening…I think I saw in him what the rumours say. He genuinely seems to care about making the operation run smoothly and making sure the team gets through it okay." Sasuke ran a hand though the blonde's tangled locks. "It's such a contradiction to all of our exchanges so far, on a personal level."

"Well, the only advice I can really offer is to say give it time. Maybe things will become clearer after this operation is over or as you work together more." Naruto looked up at Sasuke, a grateful smile on his face.

"You're right, of course," he said, closing his eyes and relaxing his body. "You're always right, Mr Smartass." The discussion kind of trailed off after that as they went back to watching the movie. Sasuke glanced down every now and again, satisfaction blossoming as the tired bags beneath Naruto's eyes faded and he began to softly snore, no longer watching the movie. At 10.15pm the movie finished and after lightly shaking Naruto awake and sending him to bed, Sasuke went back to the study to try and finish his assignment.

*I've had it pointed out to me that Mahatma Gandhi originally uses this phrase; however I did do my research before throwing the quote in and I took it from Martin Luther King Jr's speech.  
Full quote: "The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding. It seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers." -Martin Luther King Jr.

**Stockholm Syndrome is basically when victims begin to sympathise with their kidnappers. Look it up on Wikipedia for more info (^_~)y

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A/N: Hi guys,

So you have my honest apologies for the lateness of this chapter DX Sorryyy =[ It was kind of an accumulative effect. Early in January my laptop threw another hissy fit and had to be sent away for repairs, then after that we changed internet companies and they screwed up our connection, then finally everything was okay…except that I had some epic writers block.

So now for my thank yous. To all of you readers for your patience/support, I thank you. For all the reviews, favourites and alerts, another thank you – reviews inspire and motivate me. And my final (BIG) thank you is to my good friend, **themagentaduchess**, your advice and friendship are invaluable and you have my thanks for getting me out of my writing rut. You're an angel for sure.

As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please take the time to review, if you can. (^_^)y

Happy reading!

~dusk. xo


	8. Chapter 7

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More

**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu

**Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer**: The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make a profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Chapter Seven

Naruto examined the report before him with a critical eye. He knew that Kiba wasn't big on paperwork, but this was somewhat sloppy for a professional police officer…and were those teeth marks on the side? Kiba, sitting at a desk further across in the boardroom, saw Naruto's expression, the report in his hand and looked a little sheepish.

"Akamaru likes to chew my reports. I can genuinely say my dog ate my report," he explained with a chuckle. Nodding and rolling his eyes, Naruto contemplated the content of the report with a tingle of excitement. Tomorrow night would be the first night that they made contact with Orochimaru. Finally, they were passed the planning stage. You could feel the faint current of excitement throughout the team.

Yamato had successfully made contact with Orochimaru's underling a few days previously, and was working on establishing some trust with his new contacts. Due to the danger of being discovered, he would now only be able to establish contact with the rest of the taskforce covertly. Naruto had organised a drop point that could be continuously monitored, and to the surprise of the people who didn't know him well, Shikamaru had been working tirelessly to create both new software and hardware for the operation.

It had been just over two weeks since Naruto's discussion with Minato on the protocols that were being established, and despite his personal dislike for the members of Minato's team, he still wanted to make sure that all of 'his guys', as he'd come to think of them, came through this safely. Finally making a decision, he'd discussed things with Shikamaru and five days later, he'd entered the boardroom to find his friend slumped over at one of the tables, soundly asleep.

Going back to the tearoom, he grabbed two mugs, making a cappuccino for himself and a strong black coffee for Shikamaru. As he'd entered the room for a second time, he'd made some noise and Shikamaru had shot bolt upright, before relaxing as he realised it was only Naruto. Gratefully accepting the coffee, he leaned back in his chair, using one hand to rub his bloodshot eyes.

"Hey 'Ruto," he mumbled with a yawn. "Wha'sa time?" There were purple shadows beneath his eyes, and the hair normally neatly held back in a tight, spiky ponytail hung loose this morning, framing his face.

"It's only 5am. Geez, you look terrible," commented Naruto after observing Shikamaru for a moment. "Have you been home or did you sleep here?"

"Slept here. Chouji's going to kill me for not calling last night," grimaced Shikamaru. Finally beginning to look more alert, he looked down at the piles of paperwork in front of him. "Oh! You're who I needed anyway. I need you to sign off on these papers so I can buy this material." As he said this, he passed a sheaf of documents to Naruto along with a list written in Shikamaru's small, clear printed letters.

"What's it for?" Naruto said, quizzically scanning the documents and finding they made little sense to him, mostly concerned with computers and programs.

"I, uh, I've run a complete update on all of our surveillance programs and added a few new programs that might help." He pulled a laptop from its case beside the table, and logged on remotely to the police station's system. "This program," he said, turning the computer to face Naruto, "is able to track people on video feeds based on data it collects about their physical dimensions and movements; though I must warn you it's still in its early stages. Then there's this program here – a high security data sharing program; from the master file where you can collate all the data, you can distribute information and contact any team member necessary, and any data they collect will also be automatically added to your file."

Shikamaru rolled his chair away from the table, leaning over and grabbing a small black gym bag. Dropping it on the table and rummaging through it, he pulled out a few items of clothing. "These things are for Yamato. The shoes hold tiny bugs, and should he have the opportunity to discreetly leave one at a meeting place inside The Snake's base of operations, all he needs to do is use the toe of the other shoe to press here," he explained, indicating to the heel of the jogging shoe. "These shirts have both listening and tracking devices in them, but to avoid detection, must be activated by this," this time he indicated to a small gold earring.

"Finally, this little white plate can be moulded to one of the molars in Yamato's mouth. Should he be required to abandon his clothes if suspicion is raised, it can be activated by clenching his teeth for four seconds to activate a tracking device, and in an emergency, if he clenches his teeth for a second lot of four seconds, a distress signal will be activated. I know it would be more convenient to use this all the time instead of the shirts, but unfortunately once it is activated you can't turn it off and it only has a battery life of forty hours before it has to be replaced."

Naruto sat still, quite stunned for a moment. "Crap, no wonder you look like you haven't slept for a week, Shika. Surely you didn't create all of this stuff in the last week?"

"Nah, this is stuff I've been mucking around with at home for the last couple of years on and off, sort of as a hobby. But since it might be useful to the team, and hopefully it'll help keep everyone safe, I figured it would be a good time to finish it." Shikamaru loosed another yawn that made his jaw crack and his eyes water.

"You know, when the FBI people see this stuff, they're totally going to want to recruit you. I can just see them banging on your door demanding that you follow them to some secret headquarters," joked Naruto, a half smile on his lips.

"Nah, they already tried back when I created the system that the CPC connects with, but I turned them down," said Shikamaru, shutting down his laptop and moving over to the little couch Chouji had thoughtfully supplied the room with last meeting. Dropping onto it with a groan, his muscles aching from sleeping at the desk, Shikamaru caught the surprised slant of Naruto's eyebrows, and replied to the unasked question. "Ah, you know me, I don't want a stressful life of deadlines and pressure, you know? Plus, they wanted me to relocate…but all my friends and family are here," he shrugged.

Thinking about it now, Naruto realised it made sense for the FBI to have looked into hiring him; with the talent and intelligence he had, he would have been a major asset to them. His decision not to accept the offer was also not a surprise to Naruto; Shikamaru was a home bird, and loved the quiet life he had. He'd never been overly ambitious. Anyway, that was a week ago, and now Yamato was putting the new equipment to use in the field, and to the delight of all involved, everything was running swimmingly.

A cough interrupted his contemplations, and he looked up to find Sai standing in front of him, obviously having been trying to get his attention for a while.

"Sorry, what did you want? I was absorbed in this," Naruto said as he indicated vaguely at Kiba's report.

"Ahuh…" Sai replied doubtfully. "I just came to give you this documentation. The FBI managed to pull some strings and we have secured a room in a building that's only two buildings down from Orochimaru's 'medical' building. As you know, it's not the greatest area, so to avoid drawing attention to ourselves, we are instead taking over an existing business – an adult toy store, I believe."

"Er, what exactly do you mean pulled some strings?" Naruto said, already having his own doubts about this plan. "Additionally, don't you think we'll stick out regardless?"

"Never mind about the pulled strings; it's irrelevant. On the topic of standing out however, it is my recommendation that you limit the people going to 'work' there to yourself, myself, Kiba and maybe Shikamaru. We're all young enough to fit in, provided we wear the appropriate clothes. Sasuke informs me you are somewhat fond of piercings; maybe displaying those would be useful?"

Not sure whether to be outraged at Sai's forwardness at bring up personal matters, or to just be amused, Naruto ended up answering with a wry smile, "I see no problems with your recommendation, though why is it only a maybe to Shikamaru?"

"Well, while he seems to be both intelligent and technologically advanced, he does not seem to be very interested in being part of the action. Our position down there would very much be in the action area," replied Sai, getting to the point right away. He could see Naruto reflecting on his statements and waited to see if there was to be any further discussion.

"Well, I can't fault your observations, but Shika will be fine even if he has to be part of the action. Later on, once everyone's arrived for the 10.30am meeting, I'll be distributing PDAs to be used specifically for this operation, at which point I'll fill everyone in about the change in location." A change to an adult toy store, he added silently. Well, this'll be interesting.

x-x-x-x-x

Sakura prodded at the cheek, which now showed barely any sign of having been damaged.

"Well, I can't see any problems; the bruising's gone down plenty," she said as she finished her careful examination. Despite being only twenty-six, Sakura's hard work, natural talent and determination had seen her pushed further ahead in her medical studies than most people her age. After a couple of years with a massive workload that involved taking extra subjects each semester, she had been snapped up to take an internship at a local hospital ahead of her time. "Since I'm only an intern, I would say you should still go see your doctor at some point this week, but from what I can see, it's healing nicely." She left the room for a moment, before returning with two mugs.

Sasuke gratefully accepted the mug of coffee she handed him. Although there had been a rocky start to their friendship, he'd quickly realised that she cared deeply for Naruto and considered him family. She was extremely loyal, and always tried to put her friends first, despite her tendency to act brashly and say whatever was on her mind.

Curling up on the couch opposite him, her own mug firmly in hand, she grinned across at him. "I heard from the nurses about the morning you came in to the hospital to have the cheek checked out, the fuss Naruto made about coming in to sit with you."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, grimacing. "They should have just let him in to begin with. You know what he's like when he wants something; he gets all stubborn and loses the ability to use his indoor voice… I could hear him from my room. Damn embarrassing."

"Ah," she murmured before she could stop herself. She heard the inquisitive noise Sasuke made in his throat, and looked back over to him. "They were trying to protect you," she explained reluctantly. Sasuke's eyebrows shot up.

"From Naruto?" he asked, surprise tinting his words.

"Yeah," she replied. "You'd be surprised at the number of men and women who come in with a partner sporting cuts and bruises. I've heard that Naruto's hands were pretty banged up, and you had a massive bruise across the face… Most of the time, two plus two equals four." She shrugged, then noticing Sasuke's stricken expression, she hastily added, "Don't worry, I straightened it out; I wouldn't a stunt as stupid as the one that Minato pulled ruin Naruto's good reputation."

Sasuke merely nodded, feeling a little guilty. He hadn't thought about what it would have looked like to the nurses when two bruised guys showed up to a hospital, bickering as they had been. Sasuke was sure that being a cop, Naruto would have known just what they were thinking about him, and he'd still stayed by Sasuke's side despite being under that kind of scrutiny. His thoughts were interrupted when Sakura asked a question.

"So, how's he doing? He's working with his biological dad, right?" Sakura hadn't seen much of Sasuke and Naruto recently, but knowing how hard Naruto had fought against seeing his father over the last few years, she worried for him.

"He's…doing okay," Sasuke said slowly, taking the time to think about it. "I think, in some ways, it's harder for him to let on when things are bothering him, you know? He's always playing the happy guy…and despite not wanting to see Minato, meeting him was really disappointing, but he hates letting on how much it gets to him. Even now, sometimes, he just puts on his I'm-a-joker-and-nothing-ever-bothers-me face because he thinks it's wrong to worry me. He's been quiet and moody all week, too." Sighing, he stared into his coffee as though trying to find an answer in its murky depths.

"Hm. He's always been like that; well, at least he's been that way the whole time I've known him." She looked thoughtful for a moment before breaking into a grin. "Did he ever tell you about the time he broke his arm?" Sasuke shook his head, curiosity aroused. "When we fourteen or so, we had this five day school camp at a camping lodge in the mountains. On the first day, Chouji dared Naruto to try and climb the rock face even though we'd already been warned that it was too dangerous in that area for climbing. The first time he went to attempt it, one of the teachers caught him, and he was sent back to his cabin to reflect on his stupid and irresponsible behaviour. Of course, Naruto was a little smartass back then; he really hated being told he couldn't do something, no matter what the rules said.

Anyway, he called us all back out that night and scaled the wall a good twelve feet, and after Chouji admitted defeat, he started to work his way back down. As we'd been told, the rock here was unsuitable for climbing and when he put his hand in the wrong spot, it simply crumbled under his weight. He fell from maybe six feet up, and after being missed at the evening roll call, a teacher arrived just in time to see Naruto picking himself up off of the ground.

When he stood up, he was standing there clutching his right forearm with his left hand, and the teacher immediately hurried over, talking about calling Jiraiya and Tsunade, and sending him home. Naruto instantly tells her it's fine, he just bruised it, holding his arm out for her to poke at and wiggling his fingers. So, anyway, we go the rest of the week without anymore mishaps, doing the usual camp activities – canoeing, campfire charades, all of that kind of stuff. We go back to school the next week, and in comes Naruto with this massive cast on his arm and a sheepish look on his face.

It turns out that he had a non-displaced fracture of the…er…his bone was broken. He told us later that he'd known straight away that it was broken, but didn't tell the teacher for two reasons. First of all, he really wanted to stay at the camp, he hated the idea of missing out on the fun stuff his friends were doing. Second of all, he considered this week away to be a break for his foster parents and really didn't want to trouble them. That poor teacher got in huge trouble from Tsunade, who was a surgeon at the time, demanding to know why he hadn't been taken to a doctor, and all the while Naruto stubbornly maintained that it was for everyone's good that he stayed at camp for the whole week," Sakura finished with a chuckle.

Sasuke couldn't help snorting, an answering smile on his face. Shaking his head, he had no trouble imagining young Naruto's stubborn pout as he tried to make everyone agree with him. "God, that poor teacher…I bet no one knew how to handle him. Shika and Chouji have mentioned a few times that he was always up to some kind of mischief."

"Yeah, but nonetheless, he still hated it when his troubles bothered his parents or those he cared about. Sometimes he forgets that us being there for him is just as comforting to us as it is to him. Anyway," Sakura said, glancing at the clock, "I have a shift in an hour, so I have to go get ready. Go see your doctor before the end of the week, just in case." When he stood, she pulled him into a brief hug and planted a light kiss on his cheek. "It was good to see you today… Don't forget, he's lucky to have you, and even if he rarely admits, it he needs you. You're good for him. The fact that your there with him…he'll know that you understand and care and that's what will make the difference."

After another farewell, Sasuke headed the local surgery to see his doctor, feeling happier than he had in weeks.

x-x-x-x-x

Arriving home in the evening, Sasuke was surprised to find Naruto's car already in the driveway. Though it was only 9pm, when he went upstairs he found Naruto, still dressed in his work suit, sprawled on the bed, staring intently at the ceiling with his arms behind his head.

Crawling onto the bed, he lay down, mirroring Naruto's position. They lay quietly together for a few minutes before Sasuke interrupted the silence. "How was your day? You're getting ready to start your fieldwork soon, right?"

Naruto turned his head to look at his raven haired boyfriend. "Mmhmm. Not too bad today. Sai managed to secure a new location though he's not letting on as to what persuaded the owner to give it up to us…" Naruto trailed off with a frown when he realised that Sasuke had snorted at that statement. "What's the joke?"

"Er, well, you know Sai and I've been hanging out, despite the whole kidnap thing, right?" Sasuke noted Naruto's slightly disapproving expression that accompanied his nod. "Well the other day…" Sasuke broke off, cheeks flushing a deep pink of embarrassment. Naruto motioned for him to continue, intrigued by Sasuke's reaction. "The other day, we went to visit this little…adult toy store, since he said his lover was going to be flying in soon. Since he was dropping me home, I didn't have much choice and went with him. Anyway, the clerk – also the owner – happened to offer us some people to go with our purchases, all for what he claimed was a 'very reasonable price'."

Sai had looked almost gleeful when he called in a request to the police station and arrested the man. After a brief interrogation and deal had been made, he'd released the man into the custody of a plainclothes detective to be kept quiet for the duration of the operation.

"Anyway, then, since his techniques weren't exactly standard, he said he wouldn't file an official report about it. He said since this would all come in useful to you guys, the report wouldn't matter too much." Sasuke looked more than ready to shift topics, but something he'd said had pricked up Naruto's ears.

"_Our_ purchases," he said slowly, a grin beginning to form. "Our purchases, huh? So what did you purchase, Sasuke? Am I not giving you enough attention lately?"

Sasuke's blush deepened from pink to red. "Of course that's not it. Sai insisted I buy something while we were there, he refused to leave until I did, so I just grabbed the nearest thing. Not that I plan to make use of it."

The blonde rolled over, covering Sasuke's body with his own and pinning him to the bed. He nuzzled against Sasuke's neck. "Hmm, keeping secrets, Sasuke? Tut, tut. I'm a detective, you know. I'll work it out one way or another."

Sasuke managed to gasp out, "You wish!" before Naruto made him let out a toe curling moan. This was going to be an interesting night.

x-x-x-x-x

A/N:

*shields head* Ah, please don't hit me xD I know, I know, I've kinda left you guys hanging with this chapter. But I promise you a lemon next chapter, okay? ^_^

I really didn't enjoy writing last chapter, so it took a while for me to find a comfortable groove to write this chapter in since I was afraid I'd hate it, but I worried for nothing. I really enjoyed writing this chapter after all. Probably the scene between Sasuke and Sakura was my favourite, hehe. (Obviously not counting the NaruSasu smex going on at the end there, of course.)

Leave a comment with a guess for what you think embarrassed little Sasuke bought from the shop ^_~ Or just a normal comment if you have time – I love to hear what you think!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time!

~dusk. xo


	9. Chapter 8

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More

**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu

**Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer**: The _Naruto_ world and characters belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make a profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Chapter Eight

Naruto grinned as he eyed his pink cheeked lover who lay chest down, lycra-clad ass up in the position Naruto had set him in before going to the bag Sasuke had tried to hide from him. Sasuke had pressed his mouth to his forearm, smothering a moan, clearly not wanting to give Naruto the satisfaction of seeing that he was enjoying the handcuffs.

After half an hour of searching, Naruto had returned triumphantly with the bag that Sasuke had tucked away in the linen press, behind the fluffy white towels that Naruto had a preference for. The discreet brown bag was marked only with a small white label identifying it as a product of _Pleasure and Paradise_, the adult toy store that Sai had apparently dragged Sasuke into.

Naruto had chuckled with delight when he opened the bag to find a small plastic bag labelled _The Sexkeh Burglar Kit_.

"Sasuke, you should have told me you wanted to play cops and robbers," he grinned, advancing on Sasuke with the costume in hand.

"Idiot. I'm _not_ interested; it was the first thing I grabbed. And I don't plan on wearing that for you," he said pointedly, looking at the black lycra shorts, half tank top and eye mask that Naruto had extracted from the bag. Sasuke knew wasn't as bad as half the things he'd worn for Naruto (hell, the school girl Halloween costume had been worse) but still, he felt that it was good to make Naruto work for it sometimes.

"Hmmm," Naruto said with a grin. "How 'bout a bet…if you can stand there without making a sound for five minutes while I try to make you moan, you don't have to put it on. But if you moan, I get to see you dressed up in it…and I get to use the rest of what's in the bag."

"I am not agreeing to that," said Sasuke, trying to remember what else was in the little brown bag, backing up until he was leaning against the wall and had no place left to go. His breath hitched when Naruto prowled closer, leaning against the wall with a hand on either side of Sasuke's head.

His blue eyes glittered as he leaned forward and sensually drew his tongue down the pink shell of Sasuke's ear. Naruto smiled as he watched Sasuke suppress a small shiver, knowing that there was no way that his boyfriend could last five minutes without making a sound. And so it was, ten minutes later Sasuke begrudgingly donned the form fitting lycra which emphasised his arousal more than it hid it. Crossing the bedroom to his work gear, Naruto rummaged around in his track bag until he pulled free a pair of handcuffs with satisfaction.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke," he said, grinning as he caught one of Sasuke's wrists in his hand and snapped the cuff shut. "Evidently you aren't the greatest criminal mastermind on earth…or did you want to get caught?" he purred into Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke half-heartedly struggled in the cuffs. Looking at Naruto deviously, he struggled again and smirked as his struggling caused his hips shift tantalisingly against Naruto's. Groin to groin, he could feel Naruto's hard arousal through the fabric of his suit pants. Desire filled the clear, cerulean eyes that stared at him. Sasuke leaned forward, bringing his face to Naruto's. The moist warm air of his breath ghosted over Naruto's lips and he enjoyed the look of anticipation on the blonde's face. Darting his tongue out to swipe at Naruto's lower lip, he moaned in satisfaction when Naruto grabbed his hips and pulled him closer.

Their tongues danced together and Naruto relished the feel of Sasuke squirming against him in earnest this time. Sasuke lifted his bound hands and hooked them around Naruto's shoulders, preventing him from escaping. Naruto spun them until they were facing the bed, and with a final shove that forced them both down, they ended up sprawled on the bed. Naruto lay between Sasuke's thighs and eyed the pale skin that contrasted nicely with the black lycra shorts and tank top. Lowering his head for another quick kiss, Naruto slid down until his lips hovered above Sasuke's collar bone.

"Hmm… I think this naughty burglar may need some identifying marks," Naruto said slyly. Without any more warning, he began to suckle a lovely fresh hickie onto Sasuke's otherwise unblemished skin. Lifting Sasuke's arms from around his neck, he used one hand to pin them above the ebony haired man's head as he leaned back to admire his handiwork. "Mm. Looks like I've caught myself a little thief here. Just how are you going to get out of this one, hn?"

Naruto flipped Sasuke onto his stomach and lifted his hips, using his knee to spread Sasuke's legs further apart. Sasuke grunted as his elbow slipped and he fell forwards, flicking a glare at the blonde, feeling that Naruto was enjoying this way too much.

Naruto crossed the room to find out what was left in the bottom of the bag, knowing that there was one more item left. Fishing out a small plastic box, he grinned as he read the description on the side of the box.

"I actually believe you now, when you say you grabbed the first thing you saw, Sasuke," he grinned. Then he began to read off of the box he held in his hands. "_Burglar's Last Hope – what burglar dress up set would be complete without this set of complimentary beads? Each bead is one and a half inches in diameter, and is made of a solid shatter-proof glass, encasing a representation of an item a burglar might need to hide from the law. They are attached to each other by our unique anti-snap string, guaranteeing a safe and fun experience._

_The first bead contains a ruby, because what good burglar doesn't get his hands on some jewellery? The second bead contains a computer chip for those burglars adept at using a victims personal information for financial gain. The third bead contains cell phone number so he can contact the getaway driver. The fourth and final bead is for those burglars who don't succeed in their escapades – the key to the jail cell to use if they get caught. Each bead contains a remotely controlled vibrating function designed to bring the maximum amount of pleasure for you and you're partner._"

Sasuke's eyes widened, and suddenly he wished he'd thought to look in the burglar kit before buying it instead of getting all flustered and buying the thing off the nearest shelf. "Naruto…" he said warningly, despite the trickle of anticipation that laced his voice.

Naruto just smiled, stripping off his clothes and grabbing a bottle of lube before coming to kneel on the bed behind Sasuke. He tipped the contents of the box onto the bed, then let his hands roam over Sasuke's body until they came to the edges of the black lycra shorts. Slipping his fingers under the edge of the stretchy fabric, he eased them down until the smooth white flesh of Sasuke's ass came into view. Giving a harder tug, the shorts slid free completely and Naruto had to wonder for a moment if he was drooling at the image presented to him when a pink cheeked Sasuke turned to look over his shoulder, hands bound in front, ass in the air.

He swallowed and pulled himself together. "Since you're _my_ little burglar, Sas, I wouldn't want you getting stuck in prison… So I think it's my duty as your lover to help you smuggle the key into the jail with you."

Sasuke shuffled his knees, trying to get more comfortable. Naruto watched him shifting for a moment before he drizzled the lube he'd pulled from the drawer over his fingers and with a gentle nudge, pushed two fingers against his lover's opening, pleased when he head Sasuke's low moan of pleasure as he pressed back onto the fingers. With a few thrusts of his digits, he liberally coated Sasuke with the slippery liquid.

He nestled the first bead against Sasuke's opening, and with a steady pressure began to push it past the slightly resistant barrier. "We definitely know that you would be able to get a hold of some jewellery, right? So I think we should hide that first," he said as the bead slowly popped past the barrier as Sasuke moaned and let his head drop forward.

Sliding a hand beneath Sasuke, Naruto found his erect cock ready and weeping. As he administered a firm stroke to the hardened flesh, he readied the next bead. "Hmm, a computer chip containing personal information that could be manipulated for gain. Well, Mr I-invest-money-and-sometimes-bribe-Shizune, I have a feeling you would do wonders with that information, yes?" As he slipped the second bead in to join the first, he stroked Sasuke, loving the minute spasming of his hips as he tried to both thrust into Naruto's hand while keeping still as the beads entered him.

The third bead was at Sasuke's entrance almost instantly, a teasing pressure that wasn't quite firm enough to enter him. He grunted and shuffled his hips hoping that Naruto would take the hint, with no such luck.

"I'm not so sure you need this one," Naruto mused, pushing the bead partway inside is lover and watching as it slid back out, he own cock twitching with the need to be touched and stimulated. "If I let you have the getaway driver's number, then that means you're keeping some other guy's number up your ass…and as your protective and jealous cop boyfriend, I want to be the only one with _anything_ up your ass."

"Ahh…please," murmured Sasuke. "J-just put it…in already…." As if to emphasise his readiness to accept the bead he pressed back. As he moved out of reach of Naruto's hand, his cock regretted the loss of Naruto's firm grasp. Despite the lack of frontal stimulation, he still felt satisfied as the bead finally joined the other two with a clunk.

"So sexy," murmured Naruto, letting his hand find Sasuke's cock again, and with a firm grasp starting to stimulate him. Sasuke's cheeks turned pink, pre-come dribbled over Naruto's hand and his ass began to clench around the beads, making him gasp as it accentuated his feeling of fullness.

Naruto finally released Sasuke's cock from his grip and pressed the final bead to his entrance. "Last one, Mr Cat Burglar. This one is the key to your release, right?" It didn't slide in as easily as the first three, meeting some resistance, but with a final firm push, Naruto settled the last bead inside of Sasuke, only the string remaining.

Sasuke panted, his eyes closed and sweat beading on his brow, feeling quite full and stretched. The feel of Naruto's hands on his body made his eyes snap open and he suddenly found himself flipped onto his back. Naruto's length hung above his face, the tip adorned with a tempting pearl of pre-come. Naruto's own mouth and hands made themselves busy and suddenly Sasuke's breath was whisked away as pleasure took him. The hips above him dipped lower as Naruto's knees slid outwards a little.

Sasuke used his cuffed hands to lower the hard flesh to his lips and stroked his tongue along the shaft, then swirled it around the tip, enjoying the feel of the blonde stiffening and hesitating in his own ministrations. He could smell the musky sweat of his lover, the faint aroma of stale cigarette smoke clinging to his skin from working down at the police station. Taking Naruto's length into his mouth, he used tongue, lips and teeth to drive the blonde almost lust-crazed, loving the sounds that his lover was producing. It wasn't long before Naruto's mouth left Sasuke, his head bowed with pleasure.

Sasuke felt Naruto moving, and assuming that it was to get comfortable, he paid it no mind. Then, his body jerked and he groaned around Naruto's cock, his ass clenching around the suddenly vibrating beads. Fingers gripped his length once more and he moaned as Naruto stroked him almost to the brink, his breathing was irregular and harsh, his hands clenched. Just as he thought he was about to climax, the vibrations stopped and the hands left his body as Naruto crawled off of him.

Flipping the black haired man on to his stomach once more and raising his hips, Naruto slowly tugged each bead from Sasuke, enjoying the moans, gasps and shudders as each left. He trickled a tiny amount of lubricant onto Sasuke now slightly twitching hole before filling Sasuke with his own hard cock, his hips meeting Sasuke's ass in a loud crack of flesh on flesh.

"Un…ha…Narut…o…" Sasuke whimpered, so desperate for release he didn't care anymore if he had to beg. He cried out each time Naruto's hips rammed home, the damp heat of their sweat slicked skin sliding against each other as Naruto leaned forward to set his lips to Sasuke's nape, marking him with another love bite.

A hand reached around to grasp Sasuke's length for the final time, Naruto stroking at the same pace as he thrust until his thrusts became increasingly erratic. Sasuke finally met his breaking point, groaning as his seed spurted into the sheets. He heard Naruto cry out his name above him, and there was one final thrust and shudder before the blonde collapsed on top of him.

They lay together, panting and exhausted, but otherwise silent. Finally Naruto withdrew his softening length from Sasuke, and then walking on unsteady legs crossed the room to dig out the key to the cuffs. He grimaced a little when he saw the red marks on the skin below the cuffs, but said nothing as Sasuke seemed to be still in post-sex glow.

Eventually Sasuke decided the glow was no longer outweighing the appeal of a hot shower and he forced himself to sit up, his back a little sore from staying in one position for so long. He met eyes with Naruto, and they shared a couple moment with a brief smile acknowledging the pleasure they had unleashed on each other.

Feeling the discomfort of drying bodily fluids beginning to set in, Sasuke stretched and headed for the linen press to grab a new set of sheets and clean towels. With a smirk, he glanced over his shoulder and said, "Just so you know, two weeks from now, there will be no special Christmas sex. This was it, I've filled my quota for the year." He turned the corner, and though it was said quietly, he was close enough to hear Naruto's response.

"It doesn't matter what we do, it's always special if it's with you."

Sasuke's cheeks turned pink and there was a small smile that graced his lips for a fraction of a second. Maybe he'd still do something extra-special after all.

x-x-x-x-x

The next morning, Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut and gave a jaw cracking yawn when Naruto flicked the bedroom curtain's open, allowing the watery light to filter in.

"What the hell are you doing up at this god forsaken hour, Naruto?" he groaned, burying his face in the pillow and yanking the doona up over his head. The response that Naruto gave was completely muffled and he had to tug the blanket back down again with a grumpy, "What?"

"I said," Naruto replied with amusement, "This 'god forsaken hour' is 10am. You've got class in a few hours and I'm supposed to be meeting Sai and Kiba at the adult toy store in an hour. I've got no idea what to wear…" Frustration laced his tone and he stood in front of the mirror in a blue business shirt.

"Classes be damned," Sasuke mumbled, but he sat up anyway to see what Naruto had on. Snorting, he slid out of bed and grabbed a pair of shorts from the dresser to put on. Crossing to the wardrobe, he scratched his head as his eyes flickered over Naruto's clothes. Finally, he pulled out a red form fitting t-shirt that had the slogan 'HOT STUFF' printed in black block letters across the chest. He pulled out the tightest pair of black jeans he could find and tossed them on the bed.

Crossing to the box where Naruto stored the rings for his variety of piercings, he selected a mixture of silver and black jewellery and added it to the pile on the bed. Finally, he grabbed the pair of black and white chucks from under the bed and sat them with the rest of the clothing before crawling back under the covers.

"Are you s—"

"Yes."

There was a moment of silence before Naruto replied. "Okay."

Naruto hit the shower and twenty minutes later was fully clothed. Shaking the snoozing Sasuke awake, he awaited approval on his attire. Sasuke eyed it carefully before going to his own drawer and pulling out a silver studded leather belt.

Naruto looked at it, puzzled. He was fairly certain he'd never seen Sasuke wear a belt like that before. "You own that?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Nope. It's Gaara's, but he won't mind if I lend it to you. Last time I stayed over, Neji 'accidentally' wore my belt and Gaara lent me that one. Haven't had a chance to r-re-return it yet," he said, another yawn interrupting his sentence.

Slipping the belt into the belt loops, Naruto glanced in the mirror and frowned. He looked fine, but… "Sasuke, I can't wear this shirt, it shows my tat. It's unprofessional."

Sasuke glanced at the tattoo encircling his arm that had been done only a few months before and shrugged. "You're working at a sex toy shop today. I'd say your tat will fit in just fine."

Finally, Naruto gave up, realising that if he stayed any longer, he'd be late. With that he said his goodbyes to Sasuke and headed for his car.

x-x-x-x-x

When he finally arrived at the shop he felt conspicuous as he entered through the front door and looked around the empty store. The place seemed pretty average. Magazine collections in the front right-hand corner, porn DVDs in the centre and various types of toys up the back. In the back right corner there was a small staircase, where Sai had said the prostitutes were working from. In the front left hand corner, the register sat in front of the entrance, perhaps to prevent shop lifting, though Naruto wasn't sure that there would be many shoplifters willing to get caught with this kind of merchandise.

"Yo," said a familiar voice. Naruto looked up and eventually saw Kiba's head poking around from the back. "We're just setting up security in the store room." He disappeared around the corner, and Naruto figured he'd better go join them.

In the store room, he was glad Sasuke hadn't seen Sai and Kiba before dressing him this morning. Kiba had on a similar pair of black jeans with a pair of purple suspenders over a black mesh shirt that showed off his muscled abs and biceps. Sai on the other hand wore a pair of leather short shorts and a leather sleeveless tank top the left his pale midriff bare. Black grunge boots and wrist cuffs, silver earrings and a bellybutton ring completed his rather sensual look.

Kiba eyed his apparel, acknowledging it with a nod. "Nice tat," he said before grabbing his cell phone to call Shikamaru. "Dude, we're all in place. Now what do we need to do to activate this? Green button? Er, yup, found it. Okay, man. Yep, will do. Yeah. Bye." Looking at the other two, explained the process of starting up the machine as Shikamaru had explained it to him, adding on at the end, "But don't worry, Shika will be here to do this stuff from tomorrow onwards, so don't worry 'bout it too much."

Naruto crossed to the main control board, which was clearly set up for someone with a tech background. Kiba came across, leaning in front of him to hit a small green button. After typing in a few pass codes on the keyboard and hitting the green button again there was a sudden whir as everything came to life and the monitors lit up. Finally, the undercover operation was on the go.

A few hours in, it finally hit Naruto that for however long they were acting as surveillance on Orochimaru, they would actually have to pretend to be store owners. When there were customers, it was a little bit interesting (sometimes it was _a lot_ interesting), but most of the time it was pretty quiet meaning there was little to nothing to do. Nothing much had happened at the medical building for a while now, just the usual stream of legitimate patients that were used as a cover. Naruto stood at the magazine rack, flicking through one of the _Playgirl_ magazines looking at the muscled guys there and wondering whether Sasuke would be happy if he worked out a bit more.

The bell on the door jingled and Naruto dropped the magazine looked over to where Sai was manning the front counter, noticing that Kiba also poked his head out from the storage room. God, at this rate they'd all have gone stir crazy within three days. The young man, perhaps twenty-three or twenty-four, looked incredibly uncomfortable and sweat had beaded unattractively on his upper lip. Crossing to the counter, he leaned over to talk to Sai discreetly.

Unfortunately for the man, Shikamaru had fitted them out with communication devices the day before and they could hear everything he said, despite his attempt at privacy.

"Uh, you're not the same dude who was here last week… D'you know where I can find him?" The man rocked slightly on the balls of his feet.

"No, he's on holiday at the moment. He hired that guy near the magazines to run the store. The guy out the back is doing security to prevent shoplifting after the last few incidences and he hired me to do tattooing out of the upstairs flat. Extra revenue." Naruto jerked in surprise before he remembered to act like he couldn't hear the conversation.

"Ah. Will he be back soon…?" the man asked, glancing about the store.

"No. But he said that if any customers come back looking for him, they can speak to me about any issues," Sai lied smoothly, and Naruto wondered if he would ever believe anything the guy said again.

"It's just, er, my friend came here last week and I, y'know, he bought…" the man leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper, "he bought a…b-butt plug. The only thing is it's kinda stuck up inside him." He glanced at Sai, his cheeks and ears turning red, and quickly added, "I came on his behalf 'cause he's too embarrassed, y'know."

"Sure," Sai replied. "Is any part of the plug still on the outside of the body or is it completely internal?"

The man shifted again, eyes darting around the shop. "Internal. He mighta got a bit too into it, y'know, too enthusiastic? Is…is there any way you could help him get it out?"

"Well, there are a few options here. You're friend could come in and come up to my tattoo parlour. Once I've gloved up and lubricated him, I could just work my whole hand up inside him – it might hurt, but the human body is amazingly stretchy sometimes – and then I could pull it right out. Or he could go to all the trouble of going to the hospital and they might give him some nasty pain meds or anaesthesia and carefully remove it painlessly. I recommend he come in here," Sai said.

He held up his hands for the man to see. "I know they aren't very small but once he's all loose, if it ever happens again it will be much easier for me to remove a toy on the second time." His face was dead pan, and both Kiba and Naruto turned away, biting their cheeks to prevent themselves from bursting out laughing as the man paled and swayed on the spot.

"Uh…I think he'll probably go to the hospital…he, y'know, he won't want to inconvenience you… Thanks for the advice, man," said the man, backing away from the counter, before practically waddling out of the store, cheeks clenched.

"Stupid bastard," Sai said, face and tone still neutral as he went back to his seat behind the register. "As if you'd go to an adult toy store for help with a medical problem."

After Naruto and Kiba finished laughing their asses off, both settled back into place. Naruto made a note to ask Sasuke if Sai had a sense of humour at all, or if that display and his comment afterwards had been his version of acting like normal.

x-x-x-x-x

Hi guys

TT_TT I'm sorry for sucking so bad with the updates x_x Hopefully the 2246 words of PWP at the start of this chappie make up for it just a little bit. I'm not going to make any promises of update times since I seem to always fall behind, but I will do my best.

Second, as apologies go here for some rough pics I drew for More Than Words (I apologise for the crappiness – I did my best though). Visit me at: ht tp : / / duskpixie. tumblr. com (dont forget to remove the spaces!)to see:

- Naru (lineart which you are welcome to colour if you link me too it ^_^)  
- Naru (kinda badly coloured version of lineart)  
- Sasu cuffed on the bed (post edit)  
- Sasu cuffed on bed (pre edit)

Lastly, if you like my writing and want to follow the original (malexmale) fic that I've just started writing, please, do come visit me at: ht tp : / / w ww. fictionpress. com / u/ 772493/ (dont forget to remove the spaces!)

Anyway, I hope everyone is well!

Happy reading!

~dusk. xo


	10. Chapter 9

**Description**: This is a continuation of Finding More

**Pairing/s**: NaruSasu

**Warnings**: Explicit adult content; malexmale relationships. If this will offend you, do not read.

**Disclaimer**: The Naruto world belongs to Kishimoto. I do not make a profit from this FanFic.

x-x-x-x-x

Chapter Nine

Sasuke smirked as he hung up the phone, chucking it into his pidgin-hole located at the back of the small room. The noise of the shopping centre grew louder as the door opened and closed, and a man in an elf costume that was the red twin to his green one stepped through the door.

"Sasu, what're you doing? You've been gone for ages, and the munchkins are getting restless with only one elf to entertain them." Haku flicked his braid over his shoulder and looked expectantly at Sasuke.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming. I was just on the phone with Naruto… He's got work tonight, so he can't make dinner, but I said that we'd go over to his new workplace for a Christmas Eve party instead, if it wouldn't blow his cover," Sasuke's smirk widened. "He said it won't blow his cover, but he's not sure that that taking you to the Pheasant Plucker's Fantasy adult toy store is really an appropriate Christmas hangout."

For a moment, Haku was distracted, his forehead creased with confusion. "Pheasant Plucker's? What kind of name is that for an adult toy store?"

"Swap the first two letters of the words beginning with P."

"Pleasant Phuck- Oh!" Haku grinned as it clicked. "I hope you told him we'd come, no matter where it was."

"Yeah. Apparently a few of his colleagues are bringing people too, though I'm not sure who…"

"Sounds fun. I'll let Zabu know, and we can head off at seven."

There was a loud knocking on the door of Santa's workshop, letting them know that it was time to go back to being Santa's elves. So, both donned their hats and headed back out into the hordes of excited children.

x-x-x-x-x

Naruto sat reclined in a chair behind the front counter, looking at the large white analogue clock on the wall, eyes following each tick of the seconds' hand. Seven o'clock, Sasuke and the others would finish up at the mall, which meant that they'd be here by seven thirty, provided nothing went wrong. He looked around the store doubtfully. This really wasn't a suitable place for a Christmas party.

Shikamaru's chair rolled into the doorway at the back of the store, its occupant yawning widely and running a hand through well tousled hair. Glancing at the clock, he stood up and made his way over to Naruto, pulling himself up to sit on the counter. "Who else is coming to the 'Christmas party' tonight? I mean, there's you and me, 'cause someone needs to monitor the cameras, Chouji and Sasuke, obviously, but everyone else… You gave 'em all the night off, right?"

"Yeah, as we've had no indication that anything is going to happen over Christmas, and The Snake is yet to make contact with Yamato… I reckon just you and I monitoring for tonight and tomorrow should be fine. Other than Chouji and Sasuke, Haku and Zabuza are in town for Christmas, as usual, and they've decided to join us. Sai's 'contacts', as Sasuke put it, are all interstate, so he's coming too." Only the small frown on his lips betrayed the fact that Naruto still wasn't happy about Sasuke's continued friendship with the man, but there was nothing much he could do about it. "Ah, Kiba also said he'd come tonight; he's bringing along his new girlfriend, which should be interesting. Says that he can't be bothered dealing with the family on Christmas Eve, and he'll see them tomorrow anyway."

"I see. And…Minato?" Shikamaru asked hesitantly.

A flicker of concern crossed Naruto's features, the blonde running a hand through his hair. "Well, he's been out of contact for the better part of a week. When Shizune contacted the agency for me, they said that it was relevant to the current investigation but it was important that we not make contact with him, in case it blows the cover he's using. So I really don't know what he's up to at the moment."

Shikamaru said nothing, but his eyebrows drew together. It was never a good thing to hear that the FBI was withholding information. Hopefully this wouldn't come back to bite them on the ass. He realised that Naruto was talking again and gave himself a mental shake and tuned back in.

"And Lee, of course, is going home to stay with Hinata and Yumi for Christmas Eve. He's pretty much been working as Yamato's handler and police contact on his own. I wish we could work that position in shifts, but because The Snake is so cautious, we can't afford to have any more than one of us in contact with Yamato. If he noticed that his new contact was hanging out with the guys who just happen to have taken over the adult toy store near his business… It would be too much of a coincidence to pass off as a chance occurrence. Anyway, Yamato made contact a few days ago to say that he was going to stay in for Christmas so that Lee could spend the time with his family—"

Before Naruto could continue, the door to the shop was flung open, bringing in a gust of icy air followed by the rush of people eager to escape the evening's chill.

Haku threw back the hood of his long, black coat and grinned. "First time Christmas partying in a porn store, Naru!" he said, sliding behind the counter and pulling Naruto into a hug. "I bought some beer and champagne…got a fridge somewhere?"

"Yeah, upstairs where Sai's been doing tattooing and piercings, there's also a kitchenette. Just chuck it in that fridge," Naruto said, the door opening again and Chouji and Sai entering the shop too. He did the rounds of greetings and introductions, seeing as Sai had never met Haku and Zabuza.

Soon, some chairs had been dragged downstairs and everyone was drinking and chatting – bar Shikamaru and Naruto who were still on duty, of course – and then Kiba arrived with his newest girlfriend. The blonde and he had obviously been arguing, but set aside their difference of opinion to greet everyone.

"Hey, Temari," Sasuke said, his eyebrows bouncing in surprise. He wondered if Gaara knew that his sister was dating a cop.

"Sasuke… I hadn't realised you guys were throwing this party," she said as she threw a dirty look over her shoulder at Kiba's back. "Gaara's going over to the Hyuga household tonight and since Kank's working tonight, I thought I'd go out to wherever Kiba wanted to take me. He and Neji were hoping that you and Naruto would be dropping by next week."

"Oh? Will you tell him I'll call on the twenty-seventh? It's a bit hectic at the moment," he replied, the polite chit-chat continuing. Things relaxed as everyone's levels of inebriation rose, and soon everyone was acting like old friends.

Sasuke glanced around as he sipped from the cheap bottle of beer in his hand, grimacing at the taste. Naruto wasn't in view, which meant he'd traded places with Shikamaru in the surveillance room for a while. Slipping away from the rest of the group, he opened the door to the back room and sidled in.

Naruto's cerulean eyes flicked away from the screen and he rose a hand in greeting as Sasuke dragged a milk crate over from the corner of the room, turned it upside-down and sat on it.

"Got stuck in the back room, huh?"

"Yeah, Shika was in here for hours; it was time for me to take over, at least until eleven." Naruto rubbed his eyes, before adjusting the headset he was wearing and staring at the monitors showing the hospital's different entries and exits. There was nothing. No movement, no suspicious people entering and leaving the medical complex, nothing.

Sasuke's mouth tightened as he observed the dark circles forming beneath Naruto's eyes, and the slight thinning of his face which reflected the weight he'd dropped in the last month or so. His desire to try to make Naruto quit the police force was restrained only by the knowledge that it would cause irreparable damage to their relationship. This job was Naruto's passion. If he asked Naruto to quit, if he tried to force his hand, he knew that while Naruto might acquiesce, the resentment would build, and he would end up hating Sasuke.

Unaware of the turn of Sasuke's thoughts, Naruto changed the subject. "What do you think of Kiba and Temari as a couple? I didn't see that one coming."

"Mm," hummed Sasuke, dragging his thoughts away from the black abyss of anxiety that sometimes threatened to take over. "I think…explosive make-up sex will be what makes it work. They've both got headstrong personalities; I know Temari takes shit from no man. Probably lots of arguing and vying for dominance, but I think the sex probably evens it out."

Naruto chuckled, rolling his shoulders. Sex made a lot of couples he hadn't thought would go together work out. Physical chemistry was a powerful component of a real relationship; at least, in Naruto's opinion it was. "Yeah, I guess that'd be right. Ah, the mysteries of love, eh?"

Sasuke's mind was still in that troubled space and he wished there was something he could do to end this investigation faster and get Naruto out of danger. Instead, he bit his tongue and shuffled the crate forward to rest his arm and forehead against Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto was surprised by the action and glanced down at his boyfriend. "Everything okay, Sas?"

Sasuke turned his face downwards so that Naruto couldn't see his expression. "Nah, just tired. It's not as much fun doing Santa's workshop without you*, even if Haku and Zabuza are there. Plus, I wish I hadn't decided to do the summer course for legal. Yeah, we get two weeks off around Christmas and New Year, but the assignment is going to occupy most of my spare time. Monday – fifth of January – I'll be starting back up again. Barely feels like a break."

"I see," replied Naruto, feeling sorry for Sasuke. "Yeah, I remember Sai said he was taking on a summer course too; something about a unit that he missed because of this operation. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Quit taking dangerous assignments and settle for a nice desk job, Sasuke thought. Aloud, he said, "Nah, just keep being you."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, just savouring each other's company; between the operation and Sasuke's university (and elf) life, there hadn't been much time to spend together of late, one always seeming to arrive as the other was leaving.

An hour and a half later there was a knock on the door and Shikamaru peered around the corner. "Yo. It's time for me to take over. Everyone's planning on heading off soon, too."

Naruto nodded, passed his headset to Shikamaru and stood to stretch, Sasuke following suit. They exited the back room just in time to see Haku balancing in a handstand on the counter, his hair carelessly knotted and pinned in a bun, a small dagger gripped between the toes of his right foot. With a sharp, graceful flick he sent the dagger flying towards Zabuza, who swung his custom-designed broadsword to meet the dagger, sending it spinning end over end to plant itself in the centre of a target they'd set up on the far wall.

Temari whooped and Kiba grinned. Sai was the only one who looked vaguely surprised as Haku and Zabuza bowed.

"Told you we're the best," said Haku, a sweet smile crossing his lips as he looked to his partner. They were never in their element as much as when they were performing. "You guys should come to our show next March. I've been practising some new acts using senbon."

Their audience nodded enthusiastically, agreeing to go see the show next time the circus was nearby.

Temari was the first to make a move, shrugging on her jacket and tugging at Kiba's arm. She and Kiba bid everyone goodnight, heading out into the cold. Chouji ducked out to the back room and said farewell to Shikamaru before heading off, saying that he still had paperwork to be done back at the station, though Naruto was pretty sure that he was just missing Shikamaru being at home at the same time as him. Finally, Haku and Zabuza decided it was also time for them to head back to the hotel, promising that they would catch up with Naruto and Sasuke privately before the end of January.

Sai flopped into the chair behind the counter and took a swig out of the wine bottle in front of him, offering the bottle to Sasuke, who declined.

"Not heading home, Sai?" Naruto asked, curious. He pulled up a couple of chairs and Sasuke joined him.

"No. No one to head home to," Sai replied, closing his eyes and clasping his hands behind his head.

"Ah, I remember Sasuke telling me something about the people you know all being interstate, right?" Naruto saw Sasuke shaking his head and trying to catch his eye, but it was too late and the question was already out.

Sai opened his eyes and stared at Naruto for a moment, trying to decide if the question was intended as a barb, or whether it was an innocent, genuine curiosity that had prompted the blonde haired man to ask. Eventually, he decided that it was the latter and he stared back up at the ceiling before speaking. "I don't have much family; the people in the group home I was raised in were constantly changing. When I joined the FBI, I had met someone…he became my boyfriend…but he tried to recruit me to an international agency and when I refused, he started using me to try and get access to the FBI's databases. Jerk."

In the two months that he'd been working with Sai, this was the most Naruto had ever heard the man say about himself. He felt an instant sense of empathy when Sai had brought up the group homes, and so much of what he thought he knew of Sai clicked into place – his ability to lie flawlessly, his somewhat warped sense of right and wrong, his seeming lack of emotion. All of those things were things he'd seen in children who had experienced violence in the home.

Lost for words, he simply said, "That sucks. I'm sorry."

Sai nodded and took another swig from the bottle, before the three men settled back into comfortable silence.

x-x-x-x-x

Naruto held up a hand for silence, listening to the sounds that were being streamed into the security room of the adult toy store. There was a low murmur in the background as someone discreetly talked to someone else, the rustle of clothing muffling the words.

A red light on the dashboard of incomprehensible surveillance equipment blinked on, catching Naruto's eye and earning a muffled, "Yessss!" from Shikamaru, who had spent the past four weeks monitoring the security footage with Chouji's help. There still hadn't been much to report. It was obvious that Orochimaru was a very cautious criminal.

Catching Naruto's questioning look, Shikamaru just grinned. Ten seconds later, perfectly clear audio filtered through to the room. "Yamato managed to drop one of the shoe bugs. They're small and only have a battery life of seven hours, but it's in the high security sector of the hospital."

An answering smile stretched across Naruto's own lips; this was good news. Hopefully once Yamato left the room, Orochimaru would slip up and give them sensitive information. Naruto tuned back into the conversation that was going on in the building across the street.

"…have some _merchandise_ you might be interested in purchasing. I've heard from a couple of mutual sources that you are in the same market as they are." Yamato's voice echoed as if he were in a large, somewhat empty room.

"Merchandise, hmmm? And why should I purchase from you when I have my own supplier?" Orochimaru's low tones echoed down the line, sounding as though he was taking pleasure in trying to intimidate Yamato.

"Competitive prices. Simply put, I have a contact in a small town across the border with access to whatever you are looking for, on request. I can get it to you within seventy-two hours, as long as I'm paid upfront and in cash."

Silence followed this statement, and Naruto was holding his breathe.

This could be the break that they were waiting for. The past four weeks had yielded little new information. There had been some notes made about people who'd entered the private hospital facility, without seeming to come back out, but as no complaints had been made there was no legitimate excuse to enter the building in a legal capacity, so they'd been forced to sit back and wait. Furthermore, they were a man down as Minato was still out on assignment and had only checked in with the team twice to report a few new leads.

Finally, Orochimaru responded. "Well, as a business man, I never take any merchandise that has been unverified. Kabuto," he said, his voice commanding. There was the sound of a door opening and closing, then more silence.

Naruto cursed silently; what he wouldn't give to have a camera in the room.

"Orochimaru tells me you have some scarves that I absolutely _must_ buy, and for a great price," said Minato's voice, causing everyone in the surveillance room to mutter to each other in surprise. Even Sai's eyebrows were raised.

There was only the slightest hesitation before Yamato responded. "Who are you? I don't sell to people who don't have a reputation for being able to hold their tongue."

Orochimaru chuckled. "This," he replied, "is Seizu. He is completely trustworthy, I assure you. He, on occasion, tests the wares before I decide to purchase them. Quality checking, if you will."

"…Fine. Let's talk business."

"Step into my office," replied Orochimaru.

After that there was a great deal of static and the audio feed dropped out.

Shikamaru swore and dropped his headset on the table. "They must have a frequency disrupter. Whatever room they've gone into is electronically secure. The only thing we have going for us is the fact that the bugs on Yamato are so small that even though they've been compromised, they still won't register as a device that's been disabled. If they were standard issue, chances are that the frequency disrupter would have picked them up as audio devices and reported it to whoever monitors the system."

"To be honest, I'm more concerned with why we weren't informed about Minato's presence," Naruto replied grimly. He put through a quick call to Shizune and was guaranteed some answers.

x-x-x-x-x

The next day was back to the uneventful life of store owners; there was no new news on Orochimaru, and Lee reported that Yamato had returned to his cover house unharmed. Kiba stood at the counter, flicking through a magazine, occasionally pausing to 'read an article' (also known as ogling the female anatomy) when the bell on the door jingled. A young woman in a practical and attractive black business suit entered, her long purple hair pulled back tightly.

She looked out of place in the grungy shop, and Kiba was instantly on alert, wishing that Akamaru was there to sniff her out. She perused the store for five minutes before approaching the counter with a magazine. Kiba was about to put it through, when he realised that there was a message scrawled across the front – the words 'Security room?'

Kiba looked up and nodded, leading her to the tattoo parlour upstairs.

She looked around sharply. "This isn't the security room."

"Nope. This is the tattoo and piercings parlour. If we took a customer into the security room and any of Orochimaru's men were watching us, it would give us away. Take a customer into the tattoo and piercing area, then it's just business. I'll send Sai up; Naruto will be up as soon as he arrives. Feel free to take a seat."

Kiba headed back down the stairs, placing a quick call to Naruto's cell. He ducked out the back and sent Sai upstairs to keep an eye on the woman, as well as to maintain the cover of a woman getting a tat or piercing.

Twenty minutes later, a sleep deprived Naruto arrived looking more irritable than Kiba had seen him in a while.

Naruto was muttering under his breath as he entered, carrying a coffee cup the size of a small elephant in his hand. "I get away from this place for two fucking hours and now I'm back again." He took a mouthful of the lukewarm brown liquid, the taste enough to remind him of why he never bought coffee from gas stations. "What've we got?"

"Er, nothing so far. We were waiting for you. I put her upstairs in the tattoo parlour with Sai," Kiba replied, heading back behind the counter. "I'll keep up appearances while you go talk to her."

Naruto gave a nod and headed upstairs. When he entered the room, he found Sai sitting in a chair by the door and the woman sitting on the tattooing chair.

"Finally," she said, impatience colouring her tone. She extended a well-manicured hand. "Call me Ms Black. The FBI sent me to fill you in on the details of Namikaze's placement as Seizu Kiroi."

Naruto shook the offered hand and took a seat at the end near the small window overlooking the back alley.

"Talk."

The woman spared him a condescending glance, irritated at his attitude. Despite this, she began speaking without further prompting.

"Namikaze was placed in the team that was investigating The Snake three to four years ago. He went undercover as a go between for those wishing to purchase smuggled people for medical experimentation. Our original hope was to catch Orochimaru engaging in the purchase of humans; but he was more cautious than we gave him credit for.

Initially, he thought to test Namikaze by first convincing him to purchase people on his behalf. Though this might seem like catching him in the act, he was always careful to use language that refers to legal product – silk, medicine for his private hospital, anything but human livestock." Ms Black shrugged as if to indicate any cover was acceptable. "In order to convince him, the FBI did in fact use a container of people who'd been smuggled over the border. In exchange for visas and shelter, they played the part of people used for human experimentation.

We converted an abandoned warehouse into a makeshift medical centre, and the smuggled people were hooked up to various machines, and bandaged to look like they'd been experimented on by Namikaze himself. At this stage, we hoped that he would take this as evidence that he could trust Namikaze. Instead of tempting him to buy through Namikaze, he began using Namikaze as a sounding board; running clients and suppliers by him while never conducting his own business through him." She sighed. "Eventually, it became more important to maintain Minato's cover in this role instead, as it gave us information into a whole network of previously unheard of criminals."

Naruto chewed the information over for a couple of minutes before speaking. "How did you stop The Snake from becoming suspicious about Minato's absences?"

"Oh, that was easy. Namikaze simply implied that he was travelling to each country to acquire the goods in person. Each time he goes away, he brings through a new group of people to pass off as his wares. Sometimes they're actors, sometimes they're refugees…" She offered another shrug; it made no difference to her where the people came from, as long as it helped maintain Minato's cover.

"I see. So basically this is good for us? That he's using Minato to check whether or not Yamato is legit?" Naruto looked contemplative.

"Yes. Now, I'm not authorised to offer any further information. Namikaze will most likely be contacting you within the next few days. Good luck." She stood and offered her hand to both Naruto and Sai this time, before sweeping down the stairs and leaving.

Naruto looked at Sai, gesturing for him to speak.

"She seemed to be telling the truth; everything she said makes sense. I say we go ahead and plan for our next contact with Minato." His face was impassive, though Naruto now knew better than to think he didn't care about what was happening.

"Okay," said Naruto, coming to a decision. "I'll start making a list of things we need Minato to do."

He stood and followed Sai down the stairs, looking into the security room to say hi to Chouji before he left. Once he was in his car, he sighed and slumped back in the seat. Everything that had happened today meant one thing. He had paperwork to do.

x-x-x-x-x

Two nights later, Naruto was sleeping, completely dead to the world until he was suddenly being shaken awake by an agitated looking Sasuke, whose hair was pointing in all directions making him look like a younger version of a mad professor.

"Phone. Emergency. You. Fucking too early," he muttered, collapsing back into his pillow and yanking the doona up to protect him from the chilly morning air.

Naruto glanced at the clock – four forty-five – and headed into the hallway to keep from further disrupting Sasuke's sleep.

"Yeah, what's up?" he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I think the shit's about to hit the fan, Naruto," Shikamaru said, his voice completely serious. "We've lost contact with Yamato, and he didn't check in with Lee last night. His emergency tracking device was activated ten minutes ago, near his cover home, but within three minutes, we lost the connection. I think it's safe to say, his cover is blown."

"Shit."

"That about sums it up."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes. Call in Minato too."

"Will do." Shikamaru hung up without further discussion.

Naruto stood in the hallway doing deep breathing exercises, trying to steady his accelerated heart rate. This was going to me a long night.

*The Santa's workshop thing refers to the extra chapter _All __I__ Want __For__ Christmas_

x-x-x-x-x

A/N:

Hey guys!

I hope you are all doing well – and if you're students doing exams that you are surviving it okay. I'm being buried alive by my upcoming psychology and criminology exams T_T But I owe a chapter, so I took some time out to write this one (I was so tired that I kept writing adult toy story instead of adult toy store XD)

So, I finished outlining the rest of the plot and I have to tell you, we are reaching the end of MTW – two more chapters, and maybe an epilogue and it's all over. So, yeah, just giving you some warning, so that it doesn't come as a huge shock.

What did you guys think of this chapter? It was more focused around the police work side of things this time. I'd love to hear your thoughts; leave a comment if you have time ^_^

Happy reading~!

dusk. xo


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